The Demon and the Primate
by Planeswalker117
Summary: It has been a year since the war between the living and the dead began. The Hyperforce and their allies are starting to believe that they will never win this war. Each day the armies of the Skeleton King grow stronger. But when a starship crashes into Shuggazoom, a man who has already saved a galaxy will help save another. AU Halo. Please see author's note inside!
1. Prologue

**AN: So, yeah. This is my first fanfiction story that I am posting on this site. I am working on so many more, but I thought that I would release this one first. Now, as this also happens to be the first ever fanfiction story I am posting anywhere, I hope that people review the story to tell me what I do and don't like. I'll try to get around to reading the reviews, but if you have an urgent one about something please just PM me. Also, updates to this story (which I am hoping will be quite long) won't be on a schedule, as I get distracted by stuff and have to be in the mood to write. However, I will stay with this story until the end. SRMTHFG was the first true animated show I ever watched, and it has stuck with me for so long. If you have watched it, then you would know that they have effectively cancelled the show on a cliffhanger. If you want to (hopefully) bring back the show, then there are several petitions online to get Disney's attention. I truly wished for an end, but, as there is none, I have decided to make my own. That's all I got for now.**

**Also, I don't own Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go!. Even though I wish I did, it really belongs to Disney. Similarly, I don't own Halo. Microsoft and 343 Industries do.**

**And away we go!**

* * *

Even to this day, nearly a year after the Skeleton King had been resurrected, nearly a year after the war between the living and the dead had begun, SPRX-77, better known as Sparx, was still angry.

He was currently lying down on top of the Super Robot's chest, staring at the stars above him. The night around him was crisp and cool, just the way he liked it. A cool breeze came by the rustled the fur on his chest and legs. He thought about the stars above him. Each one was thousands of light-years away, a pinprick of light in the vast blackness of space, struggling with all its might to prevent the encroaching darkness from snuffing him out.

It reminded him of the team, of their allies, and what they stood for. No matter how hard they tried, or how hard they fought, they would all one day be bested by the universe itself, unable to withstand its unrelenting fury. Eventually, all stars would die out, and collapse in one great release of energy as if in defiance of the darkness. The light of a supernova burned bright, bright enough to light the darkness for those around it.

Like a star, that would burn bright to keep that from happening, but with this war going on, even the brightest stars were beginning to dim.

The team were like stars. They stood in defiance of the Skeleton King and the Dark One worm in order to keep them from getting any further. The team burned bright, but with this war going on, even the brightest stars would dim and collapse. Sparx only hoped that when he finally collapsed he went out in a blaze of glory, much like that of a supernova.

The stars also reminded him of a certain monkey, one that had a very similar name; and a very similar temper. His thoughts turned to her as he shifted his gaze to look at a different star.

As he gazed upon this other star, his mind drifted back to the day that he had gone evil and betrayed his own team, and his love. He was angry that he hadn't further thought about why Gibson hadn't grabbed the Ice Crystal of Vengeance. He was angry that he had let something so evil, something that his soul had screamed for him not to touch, and yet he did.

He was angry that he didn't fight back hard enough against his evil self, or that he couldn't do anything but watch, helplessly, as his evil self tortured and nearly killed Nova. Nova! Of all people, it had to be her that he nearly killed. Of all of his teammates, it wasn't Antauri, or Gibson, or Otto that he targeted, but Nova. The monkey that had meant so much to him.

He couldn't even begin to forgive himself for hurting her, for hurting the one that was his love. He could still hear the evil voices in his head, the remnants of the Fire of Hate, urging him to do terrible things to those around him.

_Rip them apart. Destroy their minds. Eat their souls._ No matter where he was, no matter what part of the day, the voices were always calling out to him. No matter how hard he tried to block them out, they would just keep coming back. He didn't want to go to Antauri, in case the voices took him over again.

He wouldn't hurt Nova again. He wouldn't let anything hurt her or the team. Not again. Never again.

He heard the _swoosh_ that heralded the opening of the door in the Super Robot's neck, and the sound of feet against the metal of the Super Robot. Even though he knew who it was without looking, he still turned his head around to see Nova's beautiful face step out into the moonlight.

"Hey there, dollface," said Sparx as the monkey he loved lay down right next to him. Nova sighed, her eyes squinting in annoyance at Sparx's perceived insult.

"Hello yourself, Sparx. What are doing up here at this hour?" she asked in return. Sparx was somewhat taken aback by her tense tone. He figure she was just tired, and stopped with the names.

"I was just looking at the stars tonight. They seemed brighter than usual. Kind of like you," he said, the last part stated under his breath.

"What was that, Sparx?" Nova asked. She was genuinely curious; Sparx had been acting somewhat strange ever since the Fire of Hate incident. In the year after, he had been avoiding talking and interacting with the team, especially her. She couldn't figure out what it was. Something was eating away at him, and he was determined to find out.

"Are you okay, Sparx? You've been avoiding interacting with us for a while now, even after all the attacks. We've been worried. _I've_ been worried about you," she said with concern. She looked over at Sparx, who seemed deep in thought. When he didn't give an answer after five minutes, she turned back to the stars.

_I just hope he'll tell me what's been eating away with lately._, she thought. As her gaze focused on one of the stars, Sparx spoke up.

"Nova, when...when you said you loved me back when I was still being controlled by the Fire of Hate, did you mean it?" he questioned. He turned his gaze to her, waiting for her answer. Nova looked at Sparx in the eye, a smile on her face.

"Of course I did. You didn't think I said that because I just wanted you back? What I said came right from my heart Sparx. I meant every word of it," she replied. Sparx looked her over once more. From her luxurious yellow fur to those dazzling pink eyes of hers, she was beautiful in every sense of the word. He looked down at the metal between them.

"I….I just don't know what to say. Ever since the incident, I've been hearing whispers in my head from the fire still trying to take me back. It doesn't help that we keep losing every offense we try to undertake. Whenever we lose and are forced to retreat, the voices keep telling me that it'll stop if I join the Skeleton King again," Sparx said with worry in his heart. Even though the war had been going well, the Hyperforce was incredibly outnumbered, outgunned, and was starting to lose some battles.

Nova looked at Sparx with worry.

"Don't say that Sparx. Why haven't you talked to Antauri about those voices? He might be able to help," she said, concerned that Sparx hadn't taken any steps to stop what could become incredibly dangerous for his health.

"I fear that if I let Antauri into my mind, the remnants of the fire would break free and consume both him and I. I can't let that happen. I don't want to lose you guys again. Especially you, Nova," said Sparx.

Nova smiled, comforted by his words. _Is this it? Is he finally going to say it?_

_Come on, come on, say it Sparx! You can do it!_, thought Sparx. _It's time I told her how I really feel for her. _

"I just wanted you to know Nova that I….I'm….I'm here for you, incase you ever needed someone to turn too," he said. Immediately, he rolled over to his side as he hid his face in his hands.

_Dammit! Why couldn't I say it? WHY? I was working up the courage, I thought that this was going to be the moment! Ah, I hate myself!_, he angrily thought.

"It….is nice to have someone who I can talk to. Thanks, Sparx," said Nova. She turned over to her side, hiding her disappointed face from his gaze, not knowing that he was doing the exact same thing.

_I thought you loved me Sparx. Do you, and just lack the courage to tell me what you want to say?_, she thought sadly. _You know how much I hate it when people lack courage._

Both of them continued to lay there, staring at the stars that twinkled so brightly in the night sky. They both wanted this war to end, just to have the time to sit together more. They wanted this war to end so that everyone could continue to go on with their lives. They both wanted this war to end so that they could finally be together. But they both knew that there was no end to the war as long as the Skeleton King was alive, protected in his Fortress of Bone. It would be up to them to stop him, and finally rid the galaxy of evil once and for evil.

It was a few minutes before Sparx spoke up again, with an unusual question.

"Nova, do you ever wonder what's up there?"

"Like what?"

"Maybe someone up there is probably wondering what it's like here."

"I guess… Do you ever think we'll meet them?"

"I hope so. Don't you?"

* * *

**P.S.: If you didn't like the romance scene, I apologize. I am not the best at writing romance. If anyone is, please feel free to PM me about it, so I could possibly get some help with it. Next chapter will be up soon(hopefully)!**


	2. Chapter 1: The Ark

**AN: Do you, the readers, want longer chapters that take me longer to get out (10,000+ words) or would you like shorter chapters that come out sooner(5,000-10,000 words)? Please let me know in the reviews. The next few chapters will be a bit more gory and destructive than usual, just because this is true war. If you don't like it, then by all mean means: skip ahead. Also, because this is AU Halo, THE ENTIRE UNSC IS MORE POWERFUL THAN WHAT IT IS IN THE GAMES AND BOOKS. You'll see. And just to let everyone know, I am not the best with military strategy and tactics. I'll do my best to keep it from getting really bad, but if you know any military strategy and/or tactics please let me know.**

**Once again, I don't own SRMTHFG! and Halo. Those are owned by Disney and Microsoft respectively. (Don't sue me, I have nothing).**

* * *

The M/AM-R jolted in the Master Chief's hands as he let loose a three-round burst from the assault rifle. Accelerated to nearly mach 12, the rounds punched through the Brute Wraith he was targeting and detonated inside, sending shrapnel and pieces of brute everywhere. The plasma reactor at the back overloaded, destroying it and the three Brute majors behind it. His motion tracker pinged as it detected two large enemies 25 meters at his rear.

'_Warning. Plasma buildup detected'_, his suit toned monotonously. With a thought, the thrusters on the chief back pivoted to his left and activated, throwing him to the right just as a large bolt of green plasma passed where he had been standing.

Rolling to his feet, he spotted his new targets.

Hunters.

He raised his left arm as another green plasma bolt came roaring towards him. A blue energy barrier sprang from his wrist as a panel in his forearm opened up. The cyborg ran through the calculations in his head of when to swing. When the plasma bolt got close enough, he swung his left arm to the side, knocking the bolt off course. In a split second, his left forearm was aimed at one of them. He triggered the Micro Missile Launcher inside it, which connected to his helmet to get real-time access to the target, distance, velocity, and timer. When it had the necessary information, it sent a small pulse to the Master Chief's neural implant, who then primed it. With nothing but a thought, he magnetically launched a thermobaric micro missile at the hunter pair.

In under a tenth of a second, the missile reached the spot between the hunter pair, and detonated. Explosive charges opened the fuel packet and released the airborne fuel inside, which spread out around the hunters. Once the fuel had reached optimum saturation with the air, a second explosive ignited the fuel. Instantly, the air around the hunters heated up to nearly 1,000 degrees celsius, melting and incinerating the worms inside the hunters. The pressure wave that came next blew them apart, sending pieces of hunter worm in all directions. As the explosion ended, the vacuum came as air rushed in.

The only thing left of the Hunters was the armor, as orange blood and ooze spilled on the ground.

The Master Chief turned to his next target: a Brute chieftain wielding a Gravity Hammer that was charging towards him. The Brutes massive legs allowed it to bound across the battlefield towards him. An unfortunate pair of Marines were crushed by the Hammer's mighty swing, splattering chunks of brain, bone, and other viscera on the ground. Blood splashed against the Chieftains armor as he barreled towards the cyborg.

Raising his gun at nightmarish speeds, the Master chief simply let of a single shot from his M/AM-R. The accelerated round went right through the chieftains armor, helmet, and head, and took out whatever brains he had. The round traveled on, hitting and coring a far off Wraith that was wreaking havoc on a marine squad.

The chieftain, now without a head, tumbled along the ground until it came to rest at the Master Chief's feet, who simply stepped over it.

A pair of marines rain up to the cyborg, their exoskeletons whirring. They both stopped to salute him. John saluted back.

"At ease, marines. What do you have to report?" he asked.

"Sir. The Sergeant Major is still missing. Haven't heard anything since that last transmission 30 minutes ago. We've been rounding up survivors in order to head up that structure," replied the marine. He pointed at the Citadel, where supposedly Truth and his best soldiers were. It was also the place that 343 Guilty Spark told them that Truth would try to activate Halo. "Once we found that he was gone, I assumed command. Master Sergeant Mobuto. What are your orders, sir?"

The Master Chief looked around at the survivors, both Human and Elite. There were only 100 Marines and 50 Elites left, and even fewer vehicles. There were several dozen combat droids still functioning though, and three MANTIS mechs left.

Thinking, the Spartan opened a comm line to Commander Keyes and the Arbiter.

"Commander, we've secured the beachhead and are ready to move onto the Citadel. What are your orders?" he asked.

A reply came a few seconds later.

"You need to take what remaining forces we have left and move through the mountains to where the base of the Citadel is. Unfortunately, we don't have any more reinforcements to give you at the moment, so you'll have to make do with what you can."

"Shouldn't we leave some forces behind to keep the beachhead secure?", he asked.

This time, it was the Arbiter who responded.

"There is no need. All Loyalist ships have been destroyed, and the only forces that they have left are those that are guarding the Citadel. I am on my way now to assist you with our remaining forces."

"You heard him Chief. Take what we've got and remove all opposition at the Citadel. From there, we can keep that area secure while you and the Arbiter move in to kill the Prophet."

"Understood, ma'am. What's the composition of the remaining forces?"

"A UAV has shown there to be nearly 100 Brutes left, with a dozen Wraiths, two Prowlers, 6 Choppers, and two Scarabs. I'm sending our last tank to help you out with this."

The Master Chief frowned. The last tank? If they lost this one, than they would be stuck with what little armor they had left already. Unless….

"Ma'am, are you sending the Predator down?"

"Affirmative, Chief. Even with our remaining Pelicans and Hornets and Scorpions, it won't be enough to take out those Scarabs. Only the Predator has enough firepower to get you guys through it."

Even through the comm link, the Master Chief could sense the grin on the Commanders face.

"Roger that. When do we set off?"

"Once the Arbiter arrives, and when the Predator has touched down. In the mean time, I need you to clear a landing zone for the Predator. We don't want anyone getting squashed."

"Affirmative, ma'am."

"You'll have to drive the Predator, as no one else can at the moment. Good luck Master Chief. You'll need it."

Closing the comm line, the Chief looked back at the Master Sergeant, the golden eye slit glinting in the sunlight.

"We're taking what we've got left and moving through the mountains. Right now, I need you to go make sure that all our vehicles are ready to be moved. Intel states that we've got two Scarabs up ahead, and three hundred Brutes waiting for us."

The sergeant's face paled behind his helmet. A Scarab?

"A Scarab sir? Even with our current armament, we just don't have enough to take those on. We've only got two tanks left left, and the barrels on one of them have been damaged to the point where now it's just a glorified troop transport."

"Reinforcements are on the way," nonchalantly replied the Master Chief. He looked around for a suitable drop location for the Predator tank, before settling on a large, open platform about 40 meters west of his location. The marines shared a look.

"What kind of reinforcements, sir?

The Master Chief didn't respond as he opened up another comm line to Commander Keyes.

"Ma'am, I have have your landing zone. Sending you coordinates now."

In the blink of an eye, his suit accessed the GPS, got the coordinates of the spot he was looking at, encoded the information, and transmitted the information. The _Forward UntoDawn_, ten kilometers in the air, received the information and sent it to the Commander.

"Affirmative, Chief. Dropping the Predator now."

Glancing up, the Chief zoomed in on the main cargo bay of the _Dawn_ as it split open. An object, massive in size, began falling to the ground.

The Marines and Sangheili looked to the sky as the object continued falling. It never deviated off course, never tumbled or rolled.

Master Sergeant Mobuto stared in shock. There was only one kind of tank that would ever be able to do a fall like that.

Once the Predator tank was only a kilometer above the ground, the onboard dumb A.I. activated the anti-gravity engines. Firing at full thrust, the tank slowed considerably as it fell to the platform. It soon came to rest, hovering about a meter off the ground.

The first and only Super-Heavy Tank in the entire UNSC, the M1000 Predator AG Tank was one of the most powerful pieces of ground-based UNSC vehicles ever created. With anti-gravity engines, the Predator could smoothly glide over any and all terrain without fear of getting stuck or sliding. With a top-speed of 80 kph, the Predator could go faster than other UNSC land vehicle in tracked mode. It used the latest in UNSC reactive, electromagnetic, and multilayer alloy armor, ECM, ECCM, point-defense, chaff, stealth coating, energy dispersive coatings, smoke and flare grenades, and more. With twin 220mm MA/PBG's, a smaller 180mm M/AM Cannon mounted on the hull, an MG360 coaxial HMG, a quad triple-barrelled MG340 HMG on top of the turret, and 4 dual triple-barrelled MG280 MMGs on weapon mounts on either side of the tank, the Predator tank was the bane of entire Covenant mechanized divisions. A high-power matter/anti-matter energy reactor, more commonly found on UNSC starships, powered the whole thing. 15 meters long, 9 meters wide, and 7 meters tall, this was the largest tank used in the UNSC. And it only needed a crew of two marines, or in this case, one SPARTAN.

The Sangheili who were among the survivors went slack-jawed at the site. Because of the scarcity of these massive tanks, they were rarely used unless they were absolutely needed. Like right now, against two Scarabs.

The Spartan turned to the Master Sergeant.

"This is our reinforcement. Get the tanks and troops moving out. We're going to secure the area in front of the Citadel, and hold it for further reinforcements."

"Yes sir!" replied the Master Sergeant.

The Master Chief sent a command to the tank, and a hatch on the hull opened up. Jumping on top of the tank was simple. His augmentations and nano-weave skin and muscle gave him a jumping height of 15 meters. But when aided by the Mjolnir armor, he could achieve heights of nearly 45 meters.

Inside the tank, he got into the pilot's seat. As he sat down and grabbed the controls, holographic view screens popped up, giving a full view of the area around from multiple angles. If he were a regular marine, he would need the help of at least one other with all the information and data. But because of his armor's built-in dumb A.I., the A.I. of the tank, and his upgraded neural implant, he could pilot, track, trace, target, and shoot multiple enemies.

The tanks scanners pinged as a contact was registered at 500 meters. Scanners and FoF tags lit up and sent the data to John's head, registering the ping as the Arbiter's personal phantom. In a matter of seconds, the Phantom came into visual range, carrying a Wraith underneath it's belly. With an unnatural grace, the Phantom stopped halted, the sound of it's engines nearly undetectable thanks to the generators of the Scorpion tanks.

Sliding into position, the green Phantom dropped the Wraith to the ground and activated it's gravity lift. A figure nearly 8 feet tall slowly came down the gravity until it touched the ground beneath it's hooves. It walked up to the dropped Wraith and hopped into the driver's seat. Thel 'Vadam, better known as the Arbiter, opened up a comm line to all allied troops in the vicinity.

"Spartan, you lead the charge and keep the Scarabs distracted while my forces and I attempt to flank them from around the sides. We will provide cover and support fire for your forces as they go through the middle."

It was a good plan, even if there was little time to discuss it. Time was of the essence here.

"Roger. All teams, hold fire on the hillside until you hear the codeword 'Blitz'. Once you do, UNSC forces will head down into the valley while Elite forces will attempt a flanking maneuver around the side. Got that?"

Green lights blinked along the bottom of his vision as the multiple squad leaders confirmed his orders.

"Good. Let's move out."

The Sangheili and Marines got into their vehicles, which rose up off the ground. The Master Chief slid the Predator tank into first position, and led the way through the mountains.. The massive bulk of the Predator combined with the narrow pass between the mountains made it somewhat difficult to maneuver the Predator, but eventually he got the tank past the narrowest part. As one, the force began to move through the mountains towards their next target: the Citadel, and Truth.

When the pass came to end, the tricky part began. Covenant Loyalists had set up defenses along the trail leading into the valley below. Maneuvering the massive tank out of the pass, the Master Chief fired the M/AM-C at a Wraith taking up firing position from an outpost right across a chasm.

Inside the barrel, a complex process took place. A microscopic slip-space portal was created inside the turret, and dark matter was siphoned out. Next, gravity rails manipulated the dark matter until it was in the shape of a shell. Several dozen electrons were siphoned off from the reactor and placed into a particle accelerator, where they were spin around a ring at nearly the speed of light. When they were going fast enough, a computer inside the turret changed the direction of the accelerator so that the electrons were smashed into a target inside the dark matter, creating antimatter. Were it not for the dark matter shell, the antimatter would have instantly and violently interacted with the regular universe causing a massive explosion. Right after, Energy-to-Matter (EtM) converters siphoned more energy from the reactor and turned it into matter, which then coated the shell. Targeting information, such as wind speed, distance, and location were all factored into the computer, which then told the gravity rails how much disruption to give the dark matter shell. It was then loaded into place, and shot out of the cannon at mach 20.

The shell streaked across the chasm that separated the Covenant outpost from the tank in less than millisecond, went straight through the Wraith, and tore into the outpost. The dark matter envelope encasing the antimatter fluctuated, and then dispersed as the disruption did it's work.

A matter/anti-matter explosion is one of the most power types of energy releases in the universe, enough that less than a billionth of a gram would be enough to power a lightbulb for a few minutes. It was an energy type that had great potential, potential that the UNSC had put to great use.

As the dark matter envelope disappeared, the antimatter was now able to freely interact with the matter universe. Matter and antimatter collided, and a massive explosion rocked the mountainside as the Covenant outpost was entirely obliterated.

The Predator continued forward, going right through the fire and flames that once belonged to the outpost.

Several Loyalist vehicles attempted to come up and destroy the tank, but all were blasted away by the machine guns mounted on the Predator. A minute later, the Predator glided up to an outcropping overlooking the expansive valley below, where three hundred Brutes and vehicles were waiting.

_There!_

Down below, their AA cannons barely poking above the outcropping, were the two Scarabs.

There were the banes of entire UNSC regiments. But now, it was payback time.

The Master Chief turned the body of the tank backwards until the front was facing the mountain behind it. He aimed the turret down, where the 'face' of the Scarab was. He heard a satisfying beep as the weapons were primed. Grinning, he depressed the firing studs.

The twin Particle Beam Guns (PBG's) on the turret glowed an unearthly yellow as the massive energy was coiled up inside the barrels. Suddenly, with an earth-shattering roar, the extremely powerful energy weapon fired, pushing the tank back several feet and blowing smoke, dust, and vaporized water from the snow into the air.

Traveling at 90% the speed of light, the twin beams cored into the head of the Scarab, boiling away armor, plasma conduits, structural support beams, and energy lines. The beams continued on downwards, annihilating an awaiting Wraith and several Brutes before scorching and burning the Forerunner metal underneath.

The entire head of the Scarab just came apart and fell off from the energy weapon. It stumbled backwards, unable to use it's main weapon.

"This is the Master Chief to all teams! Blitz, blitz, blitz!" yelled the Spartan into the microphone.

The entire hillside erupted into plasma, M/AM, and particle weapon fire as the combined Human and Sangheili force poured their weapons into the enemy below. Over a hundred Brutes were cut down by the surprise attack, and a dozen Wraiths, Prowlers, and Choppers were destroyed.

Scorpion tank engines rumbled as they floated down onto the valley floor, where the main turrets went after the legs of the Scarabs. Plasma mortars lobbed from Sangheili Wraiths started targeting the Brutes who had taken cover behind shrapnel and destroyed vehicles.

The Master Chief primed the cannon again and fired and the other Scarab, getting the same results. As the head fell off, dozens of Hornets entered the fray right as Loyalist Phantoms and Banshees flew over.

It all became organized chaos once again. The Master Chief had seen it many times in the future. Rotating the turret around, he glided the Predator tank down to the valley floor. Once he got down, he could see the carnage better.

Brute bodies torn apart by M/AM rounds here, a destroyed Warthog there. As he came down, a massive leg came crashing down in front of him. Halting the Predator in his tracks, he aimed the turret at the underbelly of the Scarab. Meanwhile, the other weapons opened up on any unfortunate targets who weren't UNSC or Separatist.

The screams of the dead and the dying were all around. From the sensors inside the Predator, he watched as a squadron of Brute Banshees broke off from the aerial fight above and strafed the Elite's location.

And ahead was the walkway to the Citadel. That was his main goal. His attention turned back to the battle at hand, the Master Chief fired the main cannon again. The beam impacted the Scarab again, causing massive amounts of damage as the M/AM cannon took out one of the Scarabs legs.

He saw a squad of UNSC marines jump aboard the Scarab and head toward the power plant. Seconds later, a strange warbling sound filled the air as plasma lines inside the Scarab overloaded and burst. The marines had destroyed the containment core for the power plant, and it was beginning to overload.

"All forces, pull back to a safe distance from the downed Scarab and focus fire on the other one!" the Chief commanded.

The Scarab exploded, sending chunks of metal and Lekgolo worms everywhere. The cyborg sent a message to the Commander.

"Commander, the first Scarab is down, we are now moving onto the next one."

"Copy that Chief. Let me know when the second one is down, and we'll take out the Prophet."

"Yes ma'am."

Coming up with a plan, the Master Chief opened a comm line to the Arbiter.

"Arbiter, this is Sierra-117. The aerial battle is almost over, but we need to hurry. I'll destroy one of the legs of the Scarab. Once I do, you and and a squad head into the Scarab and finish it off. I'll cover you from out here."

"I copy that, Spartan."

Closing the comm line, the Master Chief move the tank around until it was in line with two of the Scarabs legs. Around him, the MG's were making short work of any Brute or Loyalist vehicle that tried to get too close. A Brute chopper roared and smashed through a grounded Warthog. As the fire and smoke cleared, it turned it's attention to the Predator. Revving, it charged forward and boosted, all the firing it's cannons.

All the Chief had to do was think about the destruction of the Chopper, and the tank responded in kind. A forward turret swiveled around and let out a stream of M/AM rounds at the Chopper. They tore through the front and went into the engine block where they detonated. The entire engine was destroyed, and the shrapnel and heat from the explosion turned the pilot into what was more commonly associated with a meat processing plant.

Turrets on the side of Scarab opened up and bolts of plasma impacted against the Predator's shield. It was a useless gesture by the crew on the Scarab: the shielding on the Predator was specifically designed to be used against Scarabs. Even a Scarab's main gun would have trouble trying to get the shielding.

Smirking, they cyborg fired the secondary cannon at the belly of the Scarab, gutting it from the bottom. The round went straight through the bottom, pulled out a mass of Lekgolo worms in the center, and obliterated the AA cannon on top. The turrets on the Predator came to life and spewed rounds onto the joints and legs of the Scarab. A warbling sound was heard as the Scarab briefly powered down in order to make repairs to the walker's support braces.

"Arbiter, hit them now! I'll cover you!"

Up on the ridge, the Arbiter and five other Sangheili Rangers leapt from above towards the top of the Scarab. At the last second, they activated their thruster packs, keeping them from becoming a purple, bloody smear on top of the Scarab. The Arbiter's armored hooves clacked against the purple and gray material.

"Spartan, we are on top of the Scarab. Give us a half a unit to get to the core and destroy it."

In the Predator, the Chief went through Sangheili timetables. A unit roughly translated to two minutes, so the Arbiter and his squad would be hopefully done within the the minute.

And they were. The same strange warbling sound that had come from the other Scarab sounded, and plasma lines and conduits overloaded again. He saw the Arbiter and his squad leap off the Scarab and run behind the Predator tank. Seeing what was about to happen, the Chief diverted power from the reactor to the shields and gave them a boost.

A tremendous roar sounded as the second Scarab went up in a large, purple fireball. Scattered bits of purple flew through air, and larger chunks of Scarab killed anyone who hadn't gotten out of the way.

The Brute's collective mentality went berserk as they threw down their weapons and charged at the thing that had done this: the Predator.

"Arbiter, tell your squad to stand back!" yelled the Chief through the comm line. The Arbiter nodded and backed up behind the tank as the turrets came to life.

The remaining 50 or so Brutes that were left behind, as well as a Wraith, two Prowlers, and Chopper either fired at charged at him. Converting to the tank cannon's mode from beam to detonation, he sighted up the area in front of him.

He pressed the trigger. Unlike like last time, instead of golden beams vaporizing anything in their path, the beams were blur and impacted the ground where the Brutes were charging. This caused a chain reaction that ionized the air around them. The next beam struck right in the center of the field, and detonated the air. 30 Brutes and their two Prowlers are instantly vaporized by the blast. The turrets on the tank came to life.

Streams of M/AM rounds impacted against both Brute and ground, turning anyone around or in the explosions into little more than piles of steaming meat. The quad cannon on top of the turret also came to life, and took out the Wraith. The Chopper tried to boost against the Predator, but flew apart when a stream of M/AM rounds hit it.

In under a second, the Master Chief had destroyed a platoon of Brutes and their armor support. That was the power of the Predator. He glided it over to the walkway that led up to the entrance of the Citadel. Deactivating the power, he clambered on out and dropped to the ground. The Arbiter was waiting for him there.

The Master Chief established a connection to Commander Keyes.

"Commander, the last Scarab is down. The Arbiter and I are making our way into the Citadel as we speak."

"Copy that Chief. Marines! Kill the Stragglers! Master Chief, Arbiter, Spark has found a way into the Citadel. He's waiting for you on the platform."

"Affirmative commander." He closed the link.

"Good job, Spartan. Let us make haste into the Citadel. We do not have much time,"

he said in grave tones.

The Master Chief nodded, and they went up the walkway and across the hard-light bridge as one. 343 Guilty Spark was there waiting for them.

"The Flood scale the far wall! Oracle, activate this bridge! The Prophet will die by my hands, not theirs!", said Thel.

The large doors opened up on the far side of the bridge. The Chief and the Arbiter ran across the bridge and entered the Citadel as the doors closed behind them.

Even after 100,000 years of never being used, the hallway was pristine and glowed blue. The silver walls showed no aging, and no sign of being disturbed. As they walked through, screens on the sides of the walls turned up. Cortana appeared in his vision and on the screens, while the Arbiter saw nothing.

"_It asked, and I answered. For a moment of safety, I loosed damnation upon the stars._"

Suddenly, they heard Truth's voice. His hideous visage appeared on the screens.

"My faithful…stand firm..." Truth sounded tired, as if he was at the end of a long journey.

The Arbiter and Chief looked at each other, and then sprinted to the back of the hallway. Truth continued talking as they looked for a way up.

"Though our enemies crowd around us, we tread the blessed path. In a moment, I will light the rings! And all who believe...shall be saved!"

At the very back, Chief and the Arbiter found an elevator with a view screen behind.

Truth moved out of the way, showing Johnson being held aloft by a Brute War Chieftain. His powered exoskeleton was torn off, leaving him defenseless. He punched the Chieftain in the face to little effect.

Commander Keyes' voice crackled over the comms.

"Chief! How close are you?" she sounded desperate. If they didn't find a way to get up there soon, there wouldn't be anything left to save.

Both allies moved into the elevator shaft and looked up. The height was phenomenal. There was no way they could fully get there in time.

"Not close enough," he gravely responded.

* * *

At the control center, the Brute Chieftain threw Johnson to the ground. The sound of bones cracking was heard has he bit his lip. Blood started to drip on the pristine gray floor. He threw a punch back, but it was grabbed by the Brute's massive paw.

Johnson grunted.

"Come on. Is that the best you got?" he challenged. If he could only reach the hidden knife…

The Chieftain snorted and chuckled before raising him up by the neck, it's paws slowly crushing his windpipe. Johnson's vision started to go black.

"Oh come on now. Impress me," he said, straining to get the words out.

The Prophet of Truth turned around to see the Human being held several feet off the ground.

"Stop, you imbecile! He _wants_ you to kill him!" he said angrily. He turned back to facing the Ark's holographic console. He spoke quietly.

"And I would prefer you did not."

The Chieftain walked forward and slammed Johnson's head onto the console next to Truth. Johnson taunted the Prophet.

"What's the matter, big shot? Can't start your own party?" he spat angrily.

"I admit, I need your help," he replied, not taking the bait.

Unseen to any of them, a Pelican dropship was rapidly approaching the window. It was unarmed, as all it's ammunition had been used up in the previous fights.

Truth looked at Johnson's face again.

"But that secret dies with all the rest," he finished.

A loud crash was heard as the Pelican broke through the large window and fell to the ledge next to Truth and Johnson. It crushed a Brute and sent his Spiker flying, and knocked over or killed anyone in it's way.

A Brute Captain got up and rubbed the back of his head. He went for his gun, but a shotgun blast to his chest took out his armor and placed a basketball-sized hole in torso. Blood and entrails splattered the ground behind him.

Commander Keyes walked out of the back of the Pelican, and looked around for Johnson.

"Johnson! Sound off!" she yelled.

Johnson poked his head over the raised dais and coughed. _What was Miranda thinking!_

"Commander, get out of here!" he yelled back.

"Not without you!"

A Brute walked toward Miranda, but she fired her shotgun at hit, stripping away it's power armor and knocking it down as a large hole was made in it's chest from the scattergun.

More Brutes surrounded her. She fired her gun at several but their armor was stronger. Each shot caused their armor to spark and knocked them to their knees, but didn't do much other damage.

"You delay the inevitable. One of you _will_ light the rings!" said Truth.

Miranda drew a pistol and aimed both ways at the approaching Brutes in an act of defiance.

"You cannot hope to kill them all!"

Miranda paused and lowered her weapons, keeping her eyes on her pistol.

"You're right," she said. Reluctantly, she aimed the pistol at Johnson. A tear streaked down her face. Johnson nodded.

"Do it. Me...then you…" he ordered.

Keyes hesitated for a second, slightly lowering her pistol with sadness in her face.

"Now!" commanded Johnson.

Keyes straightened up and aimed at Johnson again. Suddenly, five spiker shots were heard.

Miranda gasped, her eyes widening. She dropped her weapons as Johnson ran to her aid.

"No!" exclaimed Johnson.

Before he could get to her, a Brute Captain grabbed his arm and restrained him. He struggles, horrified. Miranda fell to her knees and collapsed, the light of life leaving her eyes. Five glowing spikes stuck out of her back and spine, and Truth walked over her, gingerly holding a Spike rifle.

"Your forefathers wisely set aside their compassion…" he began. Looking down at Miranda, he dropped the rifle and shook his fist to emphasize his point. "...steeled themselves for what needed to be done."

He walked up to Johnson.

"I see why they left you behind."

The Brute Captain picked up Johnson and brought him over to the control panel.

"You were weak...and gods must be strong."

He forced Johnson's hand down on the panel with a smug look on his face. Johnson, overcome with grief and shock from Miranda's death, didn't resist. Instantly the Control Terminal began to change and heighten. The dais they were on raised up several feet. Truth raised his arms in triumph. Six out of Seven Holographic Halo Rings light up one by one. At the far end of the corridor, nearly a kilometer away, the Chief and Thel 'Vadam emerged from the lift.

Two Flood Tank Forms dropped from above. The Master Chief drew his SACW-R and aims, as 'Vadam activated his Energy Sword.

They both heard a deep rumbling voice as the Gravemind spoke through his forms.

"Do not shoot, but listen! Let me lead you safely to our foe! Only you can halt what he has set in motion."

They cautiously lowered their weapons as dozens of Infection forms scurried between their feet, on towards their common enemy: the Prophet of Truth. They looked at each other: they didn't trust the Flood, but they had no choice.

The Master Chief and Arbiter rushed forward as they began their assault on the remaining Loyalist infantry. The Flood charged forward, infecting Brute after Brute, leaving only Grunts and Jackals for the cyborg and his ally. They were dealt with quickly, as the Master Chief's rifle spewed shell after shell of M/AM rounds. Thel charged towards the survivors, cutting them apart with his energy sword. They let the Flood do the work for them.

They eventually reached a room where a hologram of the Prophet was shouting and raving.

"How could I have known the Parasite would follow?! Undoubtedly this is the Heretics' doing! A final, bitter curse. Clear evidence of treachery long hidden!"

The Arbiter growled and sliced the projector in half. The alien and the cyborg continued their way to the second part, where there was minimal resistance. A Brute Chieftain jumped from above with his bodyguards, but the Master Chief only let off a three round burst from his assault rifle as his Independent Missile Pods (IMP's) took out several of the bodyguards.

The burst instantly destroyed the Chieftain, and the Arbiter ducked past a strike before burying his energy sword in the back of a Brute.

They continued on into the next room, where small Flood forces were gathering. Another hologram of the Prophet appeared.

"So far are we along the path, that I must strain to hear the clumsy patter of their pursuit. Know this my brothers, they may foul the way with their charred and broken bones, but they will not stop the Journey."

The Master Chief and Arbiter continued on, only to watch the entire Covenant resistance get routed by the Flood. Plasma fire from several Grunts kills some of the Infection forms, but they are soon torn apart by the tide of the Flood.

All that stood in the way between them and the Prophet was a light bridge. The Master Chief walked up, Flood parting before him as he laid a hand on the console. The bridge flickered to life, and the cyborg and alien crossed together.

They came across Johnson as they got to the other side. He was resting Miranda Keyes' body on his lap next to the Pelican. They stared into her empty, lifeless eyes, until Johnson closed the gently.

Johnson sighed.

"Stop the rings. Save the rest," he painfully said.

The Chief continued to stare at Miranda, his shoulders slumped, disheartened by her loss. 'Vadam approached the crawling form of Truth, his energy sword turned off but ready to be used. He grabbed his robes and pointed his energy at Truth's face.

"Can't you see Arbiter? The moment of salvation is at hand," stated Truth.

The Arbiter grabbed Truth by his throat.

"It will not last!" angrily replied the Arbiter.

"Your kind… never truly believed in the promise of the sacred rings."

Suddenly, they heard the voice of the Gravemind speaking. But is wasn't through their minds: it was through Truth.

"Lies for the weak. Beacons for the deluded," it said.

The Arbiter drew his energy sword and activated it, ready to kill his former. The fires of determination were lit within his eyes.

"I will have my revenge on a Prophet, not a plague!" he said.

"My feet have tread the path. I shall become a god!" said Truth.

Tentacles began to sprout from Truth's faces as the infection by the Gravemind progressed.

"You will become food - nothing more," it spoke in it's deep, low tone.

The Chief stepped onto the dais and approached the Ark's control panel ready to deactivate it.

"No!" yelled Truth in defiance.

The Master Chief laid his hand on the control panel. It responded to the touch of the Reclaimer, and it deactivated. The six holographic Halo rings dimmed. The dais lowered itself back to it's original position. Flood bodies began to stir around them.

Thel held Truth aloft in the air, strangling him.

"I… am… Truth! The voice of the Covenant!" he struggled to say. His entire world was crumbling around him

Thel turned Truth away from him and grabbed his neck viciously. Truth's crown fell off as he pitifully gasped for air, trying to grab the Arbiters massive hands.

"And so, you must be silenced!" declared Thel.

He stabbed Truth through his back, going clean through him. The two points of his energy sword poke out the front of Truth.

"AHHHHHHH!" screamed Truth as pain wracked his entire body. Flood spores shot out of his mouth and the infection inside him pitifully squeals.

The Last High Prophet was dead.

Thel pulled his energy sword out of Truth's body, which fell to the floor. The Arbiter let out a roar of triumph and deactivated his energy sword. He turned to the Chief who nodded. The war was over. They both turned to see Johnson carrying Miranda's body into the Pelican. Both the Chief and the Arbiter have a moment of silence as they came to the realization that their victory didn't come without loss.

Suddenly, the ground began to tremble, and massive tentacles rose up all around them. The Master Chief aimed his SACW-R at the tentacles, while the Arbiter activated his energy sword. They stared at the tentacles, which rose up high around them. The Gravemind laughed maniacally, his betrayal complete.

"_Now the gate has been unlatched, headstones pushed aside… corpses shift and offer room, a fate you must abide_!"

Johnson leaped into the cockpit of the Pelican, which starts to take off. The Master Chief looked at the Pelican and then the Arbiter.

"Take my hand!" he yells to the Arbiter. The Arbiter complies and grabs the cyborg's five-fingered hand with his own four-fingered one.

With a thought, John activated his thruster pack and jumps aboard the Pelican with the Arbiter in tow, who he pulls up and into the cargo bay.

"Johnson, get us out of here! Get us back to the Dawn!" ordered the Chief. The doors on the Pelican slide shut, and the large drop ship takes off.

As the Pelican sped up, John saw a ghostly, flickering image of Cortana walking back towards the doors. He turned around and slowly walked to where she was standing.

Thel looked at him, confusion on his face.

"Spartan, what do you see?"

The Chief ignored him, instead going to the window in the back of the Pelican. He pushes a button on the side of the door, and the entire door turns into a transparent material.

The Arbiter walks over to him, joining him at the back. Suddenly, a massive structure began to rise up out of the thick fog. Circular in shape, they both recognize it immediately:

A Halo ring. Although incomplete, the basic shape is still there. Cortana's plan became more clear to John has he thought about the implications of it.

'Vadam stepped forward.

"A replacement. For the ring you destroyed," he spoke in hushed tones.

"When did you know?" asked the the Chief. At first the Arbiter was confused, but then he saw a soft blue glow in his peripheral vision. He turned around, seeing Guilty Spark hovering up to them.

He floated forward until he was hovering right next to the Chief.

"Just now - but...I had my hopes. What will you do?" he asked.

John's mind raced as he came up with a plan to rid the Ark and the galaxy of the Flood. If he could use the ring to wipe out the Flood, then they could head through the portal and back to earth, and the Flood would be destroyed. With the plan formalized, he turned back to Guilty Spark.

"Light it," he said, icy venom in his words. Guilty Spark bounced with joy.

"Then we are agreed! A tactical pulse will completely eradicate the local infestation! I will personally oversee the final preparations."

The Master Chief opened up the doors, and Guilty Spark flew enthusiastically around the Chief and Thel. They looked at each other, and Guilty Spark flew off towards the new Halo ring, all the while talking to himself.

"Though it will take some time to refabricate an activation index, I will see to the letter that…" he rambled as he sped towards the ring, now out of range of the cyborg and aliens hearing.

The Arbiter looked at the Chief again, a question on his mind.

"How will you light it?" he asked.

The Chief turned to look at the crashed form of High Charity, the Arbiter following his gaze. Immediately, he understood. Cortana still had the Index from the first ring, and it would likely be able to activate the new one.

The Chief turned to the Arbiter.

"You should get back and tend to your forces. Get them off the Ark and back to Earth. I'll go in and get Cortana. If you finish early, come help me with the Flood," said the SPARTAN.

Thel nodded. He opened up a comm line to his forces and started telling the plans and the needed preparations. In order to make sure everyone go off the Ark, the Humans, aside from the Chief and Johnson, were to get on Sangheili ships and head back to Earth.

The Pelican soon came to rest inside the _Dawn_'s cargo bay, and they disembarked. Johnson briefly stopped to put Miranda's body in the Morgue, so that she could have a proper burial once they got back to Earth.

The Arbiter walked towards the Phantom in the cargo bay, reminiscing about what had been done today. The war was over. Although most of the Human population didn't know it, the war had taken a massive toll on the Sangheili too. Billions of Sangheili had died in the war, and for what? A lie? The Sangheili had been used as a tool by the Prophets, who had sent them to their deaths so that they could keep power. Thel had reveled in the feeling of his sword burying into that treacherous Prophet's back. It was done. The Covenant was destroyed. The war was over.

As he took off towards the _Shadow of Intent_ to help his forces leave, he thought about what the future would hold after the war. There would be enormous animosity towards Sangheili by the Humans, but who could blame them? The Prophets had lied to the Sangheili, lied to all the Covenant, about who the Humans were. They had nearly brought about the destruction of an entire species just to keep their power. The Humans had fought ferociously, and had even gone after several Covenant worlds to exact revenge. Thel only hoped that the war would bring an end to open hostilities.

Back on the _Dawn_, the Chief was getting ready to head back to High Charity and retrieve Cortana. He had repaired and cleaned his weapons and armor, and was about to take the Pelican and head back.

He didn't expect a voice to enter his head, though, especially one that carried no anger or hate. It was a soft and quiet voice, soothing in it's words.

"_Reclaimer, you must find me if you are to prepare for the future ahead_," it said. Suddenly, images of the location of something flashed in his head. It showed a room, like many others on the Ark, but this one was far more sleek and sharp. It was more open too, and had multiple connecting light bridges. It housed something. Something important. He held his head as the voice continued.

"_In order to prepare you for what is coming, I must speak with you_."

And then it was gone. John's analytical mind raced. Who was that? What were they talking about about? It didn't matter. Even though the voice made it sound like finding it was top priority, the mission came first. If he found that place along the way, then great.

Satisfied everything was in working order, he left the armory and walked towards the Pelican. But something whispered in his head.

_Find her. Find the Librarian._

He didn't know who or what the Librarian was, and he logged it away in his suit for further elaboration.

He clambered into the pilot's seat of the Pelican and took off towards High Charity. He took the Pelican higher into the clouds and activated it's supercruise mode. In a little under three minutes he had found a suitable entrance point that would get him inside.

With a series of Neural Input Commands (NIC's), he told the Pelican to wait outside High Charity in a holding pattern until he called it back.

He opened the doors at the back and gazed at the once glamorous and exotic High Charity. Once colored purple and grey, it was now covered in sickly green and brown growths. The size of High Charity was massive. It covered the landscape, and pieces that had broken off dotted the landside for miles around.

The Pelican hovered the entry way, and the Master Chief jumped out of the Pelican. It closed the bay doors and sped off to gain altitude. Once it was high enough, it started to circle High Charity.

The fall for the cyborg was over quickly. A couple seconds before landing he activated his thruster pack, slowing his descent considerably. He deactivated it when he was several meters off the ground, and landed on the organic ground.

His comm unit crackled to life.

"The survivors are still being loaded up, Chief. Once they are the Elite ships are going to be heading back through the Portal," said Johnson. He was staying in the _Dawn _in the upper atmosphere, waiting for John to retrieve Cortana so they could make their way towards Halo's control center.

The Master Chief raised his boot and shook off some of the biomass that had gotten stuck to it.

"Cortana's in there somewhere."

The Master Chief started walking, and had his suit start scanning the area for any data signature similar to Cortana's. Every step he took in the organic material made a disturbing squelch noise. His suit left large indentations in the biomass as he continued forward.

High Charity had changed, and definitely not for the better. There was not a single piece of uncontaminated material anywhere in sight, and as he continued, he noticed that there were no bodies. That was not good. If there were no bodies, then that meant that they had been turned…

An organic noise came from his left, and the Chief whipped up his rifle in the blink of an eye. Even though his suit said that nothing was in sight, he looked around with his eyes. Machines were prone to failure, but organic eyes could never fail. He scanned the area again, but saw nothing come up, and continued moving.

What he heard next was not so much as heard as it was felt in his body. It was the Gravemind talking to him, but it didn't come from his head. His vision contorted and his body slowed as the massive presence made itself known.

"_**Child of my enemy, why have you come? I offer no forgiveness; a father's sins pass to his son**_," it spoke in his very soul. His mind struggled to comprehend the creature, but failed.

The entity went away, and the Chief could think freely again. His scanners pinged: they found an energy signature the matched that of Cortana's. It was only a kilometer forward, but it was curiously underground. He set a waypoint there, and started his way.

Eventually he came to an unusual growth in the ground. It was circular, and was in the place of where a door used to be. It seemed to have seven "teeth" connected by a grayish, translucent membrane. As he moved closer to it, it opened up to another level beneath him.

His waypoint changed to where it was at the ground beneath him. Without any other option, he jumped down. Suddenly, his mind was swarmed with psychotic laughter and cries of agony. He heard it everywhere, and an image of Cortana appeared. It was distorted and erratically jumped around in his vision. It was another one of these moments.

He shook his head and continued forward. He came to another room that was covered in the same organic material, and was filled with pillars. To his right were a series of raised, organic platforms leading up to a much larger one.

His suit picked up a radio transmission from a crashed pelican near his position.

"I tried to stay hidden, but there was no escape! He cornered me, wrapped me tight...and brought me close."

A cry split the air as the suits motion tracker went crazy. There was red everywhere. The first combat forms entered the fray by leaping into the air, hoping to get in a surprise attack at the Master Chief. One form tried to pounce on the Chief, but was destroyed by one of the Chiefs' IMP's. And then the fight began.

A Flood form reached out in an attempt to grab the super-soldier, but he simply side-stepped and the form with his wrist-mounted energy gauntlets. He kicked it away, sending it barrelling into another form. He whipped out his SACW-R and started firing.

Even as the combat forms fell apart under the assault by the rifle, the Flood continued on without mercy. They felt no fear, no pain, only the desire to consume and infect. Infection forms scurried underneath everyone, and aimed for the Master Chief. The Chief ducked as a blast from a plasma rifle was fired by one of the Elite combat forms. As the Flood got closer, the Chief changed his loadout from medium range to close range.

His suit read that thought and translated it into action. His SACW-R shifted to a SACW-S, his grenades changed to include a more potent acid and flame grenade, and the warheads on his cannons and IMP's changed to thermobaric to better disintegrate the flood.

His weapon transformation complete, he took aim at the nearest Flood form and pulled the trigger on his shotgun. The scatter gun boomed and kicked, but his suits servos kept the recoil from getting too much. 15 M/AM pellets were fired at hypersonic speeds. They penetrated the Flood forms and detonated, spraying green ichor and infected pieces of flesh in all directions. The pellets that hit the walls detonated as well, hitting the Flood from all directions.

A missile was fired by his IMP's that landed in a Flood-filled area and turned into slime and still-cooling parts of Flood.

And then the tank came in. It was massive, easily larger than a Hunter, and it charged it the Chief. He unloaded blast after blast from his shotgun at it, but to little avail.

_Time to change tactics_, he thought. He had the shotgun reform into its component parts and fold back into his suits armor. Charging his reactor, he channeled a large amount of energy into the gloves of the suit, and raised his arms, palms open.

The energy in his gloves continued to grow until it was at maximum power. A thought later, and the energy was ejected out of the suit at high speed in the form of two glowing balls of fusion. They impacted against the tank and exploded, instantly incinerating it and anything in a 15 meter radius.

The Master Chief lowered his arms and summoned back his shotgun right as a carrier form fell to the ground and exploded, sending smaller infection forms everywhere. The cyborg grabbed an acid grenade from his belt and chucked it at the pile of dead combat forms the infection forms were trying to reanimate.

The grenade landed and started spraying acid everywhere, melting the infection and combat forms down to their molecular parts.

A couple more shots from his shotgun and the last Flood form fell. Stepping over the still-cooling body, the Spartan continued on. As he continued into the hive, he felt the psychic presence of the Gravemind once again try to break into his mind.

"_**Of course, you came for her… We exist together now. Two corpses, in one grave…**_**,**" it spoke. Green swam in the Chief's view, and he struggled to move.

It was Cortana who spoke in his mind next. She sounded distant, as if she wanted to keep the Chief from hearing her.

"_A collection of lies, that's all I am! Stolen thoughts and memories!_" she cried.

"**And yet, perhaps a part of her… remains?**" the Gravemind asked before laughing maniacally.

His tone shifted to a higher key as it was soon Cortana that was laughing. The Master Chief shook his head to clear it and moved on.

His waypoint pinged as it said that he was right on top of Cortana. He stopped walking as he looked around for something like her.

There! It was an entrance to a Forerunner room or facility, and his waypoint was placed over it. He walked towards it and the doors slid open. He walked on in, seeing Sentinels firing beams at Flood growth to remove it. The walls were clean, and were a combination of overlapping pieces of grey and silver metal. Lines of blue were mixed in between, and glowed brightly. Even in such close proximity to Flood growth, this old facility stood as a testament to the precision of the Forerunners and their defiance of the Flood.

As he walked forward he started to remember this place. It looked extremely similar to the rooms he had seen in that vision aboard the _Dawn_. He continued forward until he came to another door. On the other side of it, however, was a Sentinel that was looking right at him. He halted, causing the Sentinel to turn and wait.

His suit received a signal from the Sentinel, which it translated into 'FOLLOW ME'. With nothing else, the Master Chief followed it down another hallway where an elevator was waiting. This one looked exactly like the one in his vision, and it started to descend as he stepped on.

It came to a halt several seconds later, and the Master Chief got off. This was the room the vision and voice had emphasized on. Preparing himself for whatever could be behind the door, he walked forward.

The door slid open, and a beam of blue light descended from the ceiling to floor. But what caught his eye was who was in it: Cortana.

He walked forward, not believing what he saw. As he stepped forward into the light and reached out his hand, his vision faded to white.

When his vision returned, he found himself standing on a different platform than the one he was standing on beforehand. A blinding white light filled his view, and he was forced to hold a hand up to block it. He saw a figure descending towards him, hovering off the ground.

"Who are you?" he asked.

The figure glided down and blocked the sunlight from his view. It was a she, he could tell that much. What caught his attention was just how Human she looked. Her face was beautiful, almost angelic.

The figure spoke.

"I am what remains of the Forerunner, once known as the Librarian. My memories were retained to assist Humanity on their path to the Mantle. Though sadly, that plan is now at risk. The Flood are taking over the Ark. Soon, nothing will be able to stop them from leaving it and heading to Requiem," she replied.

"Requiem?" asked John.

"They seek the Didact and this - the Composer. It is a device that the Gravemind plans on having the Didact use to contain the greatest threat to both the Forerunners and the Flood: You."

The Master Chief stared at the Librarian as visions entered his mind.

"100,000 years ago, Mankind spread into the stars with an unexpected, desperate violence. Entire systems fell before the Didact's Warrior-Servants rose to halt the aggression. When the Didact finally exhausted the humans, after a millennia, his sentence was severe. We had no way of knowing that the Forerunners were not your only enemy. Humanity hadn't been expanding. They were running. Weakened from our conflict, we were no match for the parasite which pursued you. The Forerunners made plans for a final, great journey. But the Didact refused to yield our Mantle of Responsibility. He would save all life in the galaxy... at a cost. In the Forerunners' quest for transcendence, the Composer had been intended to bridge the organic and digital realms. But we found It would have made us immortal. But its results soured. The stored personalities fragmented, and our attempts to return them into biological states created only abominations. The Flood only assimilated living tissue. The Composer would provide the Didact his solution… and his revenge. It was then we found out something terrible: the Flood were not a natural mutation of life. There was an ancient species that came before both ours and Ancient Humanities. After a long and terrible war, they went insane after being defeated, and wanted to destroy all that they had created. When any creature, Human or Forerunner, was composed, they touched the essences of this once great race: the Precursors. They blindly followed them, and the remnants of those left behind. "

John suddenly understood.

"The Flood - they're the remnants of the Precursors, aren't they?" he asked.

The Librarian nodded, with deep sorrow on her face.

"Yes. What we didn't know at the time was that the Flood had corrupted the Didact and had driven him mad. He composed an entire planet of Humans, and bent them to his will. But they were only the beginning. He would have encrypted your entire race if we had not removed the Composer from his care and imprisoned him here. But it may not be enough to stop what is coming."

John was confused.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"The evils of the universe are converging on our galaxy; evils as powerful or even more powerful than the Precursors. Before we destroyed the Human resistance on Charum Hakkor, where your species made it's last stand, we found something in one of the deep, underground labs. We found this."

A suit of armor appeared. It was large, about the same size as the Chief. It was green, and had large sections of armor plating. There large shoulder pauldrons that extended from the chest armor that covered the shoulders. Two massive gauntlets extended from the forearms, and there was a cloak around the waist the covered the legs. The helmet was rectangular in appearance, with three lines lines for eyes slits and what looked like lines of tear streaks down the cheeks. Criss-crossed throughout the armor was lines of a glowing golden material.

"When studied in a lab, we found that it was a mix of both Human engineering and reverse-engineered Precursor technology. We brought it back with us, and found that it was the greatest suit of armor we have ever seen. It's shielding was strong enough that it could survive blasts from a Fortress-class ships particle beam weaponry, and the armor panels could take sustained fire from all of our weapons for longer than a full minute. It had many built in weapons, such as energy gauntlets that could create edged weapons which extended from the gauntlets, such as swords or sickles. It had a powerful thruster pack on the back, and in internal slipspace drive engine that was far faster than anything we had."

John was extremely impressed. A suit of armor like that would have been enough to stop the entire Covenant advance in it's tracks. Wait….

"If it was so powerful, why was it never used?" he asked.

"We tried so many times and so many ways to use it. But there was something inside it that would kill those it deemed unworthy when they tried to use it. It would say that only the greatest warrior and savior of mankind would be able to use it. When the Flood invasion began, I had it brought here. Reclaimer, when I indexed mankind for repopulation, I hid seeds from the Didact. Seeds, which would lead to eventualities. Your physical evolution. Your combat skin. Even your ancilla, Cortana. They were the seeds that make you the one capable of using the armor. You are the greatest threat to the Flood, and the greatest hope for everyone in the galaxy. You are the culmination of a thousand lifetimes of planning, John."

The Master Chief stared at her, unable to believe what she was saying. Was all this planned? Was the war with the Covenant all a plan to get him here and get the armor?

"Planning for what?"

Suddenly, a low rumbling was heard outside.

"The Gravemind. He has found us."

From behind the Librarian, a large platform rose into the sky with the Gravemind perched upon it.

"**Even in death, the orchestras of the Forerunners continue. We meet again Librarian**," it claimed.

"Reclaimer! The genesong I placed within you contains many gifts, including an immunity to the Composer and the temptations of the Precursors. But it must be unlocked!" stated the Librarian. The presence of the Gravemind was wreaking havoc with the Forerunner systems. They only had seconds left.

"How?" asked John.

"**Will you cease contact, or will I show you to your graves?**" asked the Gravemind. It was losing patience, and fast.

"Your evolutionary journey must be accelerated," said the Librarian.

"Can I defeat the Gravemind without?" asked John.

"No," the Librarian curtly replied.

"Then do it," said John.

"Prepare yourself."

Contact with the Librarian broke as her memories exited the Chief's head. His body glowed with gold and blue energy as one of the gifts of the genesong was activated. It felt weird as his body responded to the changes; his DNA rewriting parts of itself to be better attuned to the new evolutionary changes.

As suddenly as it began it was over. The Master Chief stood up and looked at his hands. He felt stronger, more powerful, and more refreshed than ever before. Unfortunately, any more examination would have to wait as a burst from an MA7C impacted against the Chiefs shields. Without even looking at his motion tracker or looking with his eyes, the Chief could tell he was surrounded.

Wordlessly, he drew his weapon and once again entered the fray.

* * *

**Aaaaaand that's a wrap for chapter two. If you are wondering, I will put links to images of the Predator tank and armor that was discussed. Please note that the tank in the picture looks different than the Predator tank in the story. Please review and let me know what you guys think of this chapter. What should I do better or differently? What should I work on fixing for the future? Thank you for reading and have a good day.**


	3. Chapter 2: Halo

**Hey everyone! So some of you were asking about the armor in the chapter. If you are wondering what it looks, there is a link on my profile page. It will give you a better visual than I can describe. The armor was found by Forerunners in the final days of Charum Hakkor and taken to a research facility to be studied. It was prototype armor designed by Ancient Humanity that uses reverse-engineered Precursor technology. Later, the Forerunners added modifications to it because of some stuff Humanity forgot to add during the war. The MJOLNIR armor has gotten some upgrades too. If you saw the movie Edge of Tomorrow you might recognize the use of missile pods mounted on the back. If you guys want, I can have a page entirely dedicated to the new stuff the UNSC has, and I can include stuff about the armor too. If people say yes, I'll work on it and put it in before the next chapter. Also, there is a distinction between armor and suit in this fic. Armor refers to the MJOLNIR armor, and suit refers to the Nanosuit that all Spartans are given to help with their augmentations.**

**Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! belongs to Disney, Halo belongs to Microsoft.**

**Now back to the story!**

The shotgun in the Master Chief's hands kicked back as he fired it into a group of Infection Forms that scurried along the ground. 15 M/AM pellets impacted against the ground and exploded, blowing apart the hideous little creatures. A dozen combat forms leapt from all sides in an attempt to surround them, but what they didn't realize was that their foe had several tricks up his sleeve. An infected Elite charged forward, an Energy Sword in it's twisted and decayed arms, in order to try to decapitate the cyborg.

The Master Chief simply splattered it all over the room with his gun. Three combat forms came at him from the rear. His brain sent a signal to his SACW-S, switching it to full-auto, and let loose a stream of M/AM pellets towards the trio. What he didn't expect was for them combat forms to step to the side as he fired. The pellets detonated against a far wall, send up organic material and pieces of High Charity's wall. With speed that belied their twisted forms, the infected Elites charged at him from three sides. From behind him, an infected marine raised a shotgun and fired.

But the combat forms forgot that they were dealing with a Spartan. The Master Chief sent a signal to his nanosuit, telling it release a small amount of adrenaline in his system. In just shy of a millisecond, the nanosuit received the signal and began it's work.

Time seemed to slow down to the Spartan. The combat forms seemed to be moving through extremely thick molasses, and when he turned around, he could see the individual pellets fired by an infected marines M120 shotgun. Spartan time. He stepped out of the path of pellets and pulled one of his thermobaric grenades. Priming it, he chucked it to where he predicted the forms would all converge.

He sent another signal to his nanosuit, ordering it to remove the adrenaline from his system as he activated his thruster pack and jetted backwards, right as two Tank forms and a Stalker dropped down from the ceiling. As the thermobaric detonated and did it's grisly work, the rest of the combat forms from earlier started firing their weapons at him. Switching firing hands, the cyborg activated one his gauntlet-based Spartan Energy Tower Shields (SETS) and deflected the incoming fire.

Plasma fire was absorbed and dispersed, but the exploding M/AM rounds were causing the shield to flicker. A hole appeared in the side of the shield, allowing him to get off two blasts from his shotgun before boosting more energy to the shield from the reactor.

It was at this moment that one of the Tanks decided to start barrelling towards him. There was no time to pull out his gun, or any of his other weapons, so he decided to use something else instead. His armor disassembled the shotgun, and the MML in his left forearm came online. He had to time this right. Too soon, and he would be crushed by the Tank. Too late and he would miss the Tank entirely.

_Now!_ he thought, and shifted all his weight onto his left foot while scrunching himself up. He brought his left arm up so that it was parallel with his waist, activated his thruster pack, and shoulder-checked the charging giant with all his strength. Even though the charging beast was simply just biomass that had been formed into this shape, he still connected with it, and hard. The creature's momentum was it's own worst enemy, as its direction was suddenly changed to where it was flying towards the group of six combat forms.

Raising his arm, the Chief primed and shot out a Timed Explosive Anti Matter (TEAM) warhead from his MML. It connected with the back of the Tank form as it sailed through the air. The Tank form crushed a combat form as it landed, smearing it all over the floor. The warhead on the back of the Tank beeped and detonated. A thunderous _BOOM_ rocked the area as the anti-matter inside the warhead collided with real matter, producing an extremely intense explosion that was confined to such a small space. The walls reverberated, and the Master Chief heard the cries and echoes of thousands of Flood forms.

The other Tank form started writhing as the Stalker form attempted to pounce on the cyborg. Once again, he activated the thruster pack and pivoted around. His leg shot out, and, traveling at close to 60 mph, knocked the head of the Stalker right off. It started to writhe on the ground, but the Master Chief simply pulled out his shotgun and blasted it right through the torso.

The Tank had also turned into a Stalker, but the cyborg simply took out a plasma grenade, primed it, chucked it and stuck it to the Stalker, over 30 meters away. With a high-pitched whine, the plasma grenade detonated, vaporizing the Stalker and everything else in a five meter radius.

The Master Chief continued on forward, coming to another one of those creepy organic doors. This room was larger, with a raised platform in the center and several entrances that underneath it. There were several pods hanging from the ceiling, and the ground was tilted sideways.

The Spartan had his scanners run again to try to find Cortana so that they could get out of here. As he came closer though, he found that there was a sickly brown haze filling the room. He expected more Flood to attempt to come out and attack him. What he didn't expect was his epidermal nanosuit taking samples of the Flood spores again.

"_Foreign tissue detected. Absorbing…. Absorption complete. Accessing deep-layer protocols: done. Isolating foreign contaminant, beginning XENO protocol_," it droned out. In the corner of the cyborgs vision a small bar began to fill. Curious as to what was happening, he asked the suit.

"Request elaboration on XENO protocol and log on suit reactions to Flood spores," he ordered. Immediately, files began to fill his head about the XENO protocol and why the suit had reacted this way to the Flood. The information quickly filled his head, as he understood it in seconds.

The XENO protocol was something that Halsey had put within the suit when the war with the Covenant began. Anytime the suit touched biological tissue, it would take readings on the DNA, RNA, and anything else of importance. It was a two-fold design: it would help the UNSC with it's xenobiology, and would look for some sort of weakness in the DNA that could be used to create a bioweapon to use against. It had apparently worked, and quite well. Many bioweapons that the UNSC had the Spartans use had come from information gained by the nanosuit and the XENO protocol. And boy did Halsey have a field day when it came to the Flood. Upon hearing about it, she immediately took all the information the suit had gained on the Flood and updated it, in case one of the Spartans ran into it again.

Apparently, the nanosuit needed to gain Flood spores or tissue once to get it working, and then again to truly start the the deconstruction process. The first time it came into contact again with the Flood was in Voi where the floodified Covenant ship crashed.

He wondered why Halsey hadn't told him. He logged it away for later, and let the suit go about its business. He still had a mission to complete.

As he pressed through the haze again, his vision went blue again and erratic images of Cortana appeared. His movement slowed as his mind struggled to keep sane.

"_May I speak with you, please?... What's your name? It's very nice to meet you!... You like games? So do I_," she said. It sounded very casual, even playful. The Master Chief shook his head and continued walking. A question was beginning to form at the back of his mind as he scanned the area for Flood.

Was Cortana going rampant? Granted, it was more likely that she was just being put through a large amount of pain by the Gravemind, but the signs were beginning to show.

A cry echoed through the room as a dozen combat forms came out of the walls, and carrier forms shambled their way into the room via hallways. Some infection forms scurried on the ground, and a Tank busted through a wall to his far left.

Unleashing his shotgun the Master Chief quickly dropped two combat forms and a carrier from precise blasts, but the carrier form exploded and released seven more infection forms. They scrambled along the ground as the Chief activated an energy sword from his left gauntlet.

The IMP's on his back sprung to life, targeting the Tank form as the Chief went to work on the combat forms. His shotgun boomed as another combat form fell before they were on top of him. He ducked as an infected Elite swung an energy sword at him, the air crackling above him as it was super-heated and the cooled. He stabbed forward with his left arm, his energy sword cutting into the Elite. The corrupted flesh and blood boiled away as the supersoldier swung his arm up, nearly bisecting the Flood form. He turned around and swung out his left arm again, cutting another combat form in half.

His scattergun roared in fury as he shot another carrier form. Several infections form reanimated dead Flood as another missile was fired from the cyborgs IMP's. Reforming the shotgun, a panel on the Chief's right forearm opened up and formed a small 40mm cannon.

He stabbed another combat form in the chest before firing a micro missile at an oncoming group of three forms, each armed with rifles. The missile exploded on impacted, and vaporized the small group and several infection forms that tried to reanimate them.

A combat form leapt from one of the platforms above his in an attempt to crush him. The Master Chief raised his right arm as it sailed through the air, when it suddenly seemed to slow down. Spartan time. He rocked back his arm, firing the 40mm HEAM round at hypersonic speeds.

He watched as the round crawled through the air. With his reaction speed measured in the tenths of milliseconds when Spartan time kicked in, even a hypersonic round going mach 7 seemed to be going at a snail's pace.

He turned his attention to the Tank form, and fired one of his missiles at its location. It too looked to be crawling through the air as it locked in on the Tanks signature and began to track it. Looking down at his motion tracker, the Chief realized that he was still surrounded by numerous Flood forms. There were was the Tank from behind, the combat form leaping in the air too the left, two forms firing at him to his right, and three to his front. Suddenly, the Combat forms shuddered. Frowning, the Spartan watched as the Combat forms started to cry out. At first it was a slow, low-pitched moan, but it soon rose higher in pitch and speed until it was the same as before. And then, with unnatural speed, the Flood to his front rushed him, the Tank behind him moved out of the way of the missile, and the Combat form in the air dove under the cannon shell. The only two Flood forms that didn't seem to do anything were the ones to his right.

John's eyes widened as he realized what happened. The Gravemind had greatly increased their reaction times and speed, and were now on par with that of a Spartans. Realizing that regular weapons wouldn't work, the Chief disabled his cannon and activated the energy sword located inside of his right gauntlet, ready for the attack.

His body a whirlwind of activity, he moved out of the way of the pouncing Flood form, and lashed out with his twin energy blades. Unlike Sangheili energy blades, which had prongs and were actually two blades, the Master Chief's energy swords were in the shape of the ancient broadswords of medieval Humanity. They were straight, angular, and long, courtesy of ONI, in order to go along with the Spartan's height.

The Flood form was cut in half, and it sizzled and popped in slow motion as corrupted skin and tissue was cauterized by the sheer heat of the blades. He turned to face the three Combat forms coming at him from the front. Two went around to either side of him in order to flank him, as the one in front swung its pulsating, tentacled arm. The cyborg raised held up his sword as the arm impacted against it. It was instantly seared away, and the Master Chief cut it into thirds with his swords.

His motion tracker pinged inside his head as it detected a large organism coming from behind him. _The Tank!_ thought the cyborg. He pivoted around just as the Tank raised its massive arms and swung downwards, trying to turn the Spartan into a smear on the ground. As the arms came down towards the Master Chief, he raised his own and grabbed the fists of the abomination. Enhanced organic material met augmentations and servos as both pushed forward with all their strength. The motion tracker pinged again as the combat forms rushed the Master Chief from both sides to get him off balance.

Diverting power from his shields to the servos in his armor, the Master Chief pushed with all his strength. Strong as the Tank form was, Human engineering and machinery won out. The Tank was forced back onto its haunches, and the super human cyborg ran forward and drop kicked the Tank forms head with all his strength. The weak tendons and organic biomass couldn't stand up to the force behind the kick, and it tore off with a wet _squelch_. It went sailing through the air before impacting against one of the few overgrown walls of High Charity.

Spartan time still in effect, the cyborg activated his energy gauntlets and spun around faster than any unaugmented eye could see. His energy swords cut right through the Flood forms, leaving split pieces of sizzling Flood on the ground. He deactivated his energy gauntlets and pulled out his SACW-S. By the time his fight was done, the cannon shell and missile had not even gone halfway through their trajectories.

Time resumed to normal speed as Spartan time was over. A pair of shockwaves buffeted the armor accompanied by a pair of booms as the cannon shell impacted the ceiling first, shortly joined by the missile.

An overhanging Covenant light fixture fell to the floor as the cannon shell ripped through it's supports. It crashed with a loud _thud_, and the Chief winced.

_That might draw some undue attention_, he thought. Several cries filled the air, confirming his suspicions. He didn't have time for more of this. With a thought, he sent a signal covering his nanosuit and armor, and had them begin refracting light around him. In a matter of moments, he had turned invisible. Right in time too, as several dozen Flood combat forms made their way into the room. They began searching for whatever had made the noise, only to find several former Flood torn to pieces or sliced apart.

John moved to one side of the room to avoid detection, and narrowly avoided a Combat form that had come close to his position. It seemed to be trying to smell out the Master Chief, but thankfully his armor kept his scent from getting out. He moved along the side of the room, being careful not to make noise. He was very thankful that the Flood didn't have any sort of built-in infrared or thermal vision, as the cloaking needed a large amount of energy from his armor's reactor, and he probably looked as bright as the firing of a plasma rifle.

He continued down another hallway, one that his waypoint marker had lit up. Another organic door opened up, and he started to walk down it. He deactivated his cloak as his motion tracker showed no movement in a 200 meter radius. He was safe, for now at least. It wasn't much comfort though. On a Flood controlled ship this big, there was no place truly safe.

Suddenly, his vision was filled with blue and ghostly images of Cortana. She was talking to him again, and seemed even more desperate than before.

"_I'm just my Mother's shadow... don't look at me, don't listen! I'm not who I used to be..._" she said. It was easy to tell that something had frightened her, and that she was very upset. With what, John couldn't tell.

The tinges of blue left his vision, and he could think normally again. The visions and voices; they were getting stronger and stronger, each one more potent than the last. He must be getting closer to where Cortana was. And he was running out of time.

He entered another large room, and immediately saw another one of those organic doors towards the back of the room. The room was filled with organic growths and unusual, featherer substances. But what caught his attention most was what was in center of the room and all around on multiple platforms: Flood. Lots and lots of Flood.

"_Warning. 78 hostiles detected. Caution is advised_," droned the suit. The Master Chief looked around. Even though he could take on all of the Flood at once, he was rather short on time. The Flood were mainly ambling around the room, with nothing to do. They stayed in their groups, and the Flood on the platforms were just standing still. There were even some Ranged forms on the walls, which could quickly become a problem. The super soldier glanced at the ceiling above and at the multiple platforms around. An idea started to form in his head.

"What are the current levels of methane to air in the room?" he asked his suit.

"_Current levels of methane to air are 1 kilogram of methane to 17.2 kilograms of oxygen in surrounding atmosphere_," the suit replied in it's monotonously dry tone. Once again, John's luck held out.

He would have to do this quickly, as Cortana did not have much time left. He grabbed the last two thermobaric grenades on his belt and pressed a button on each. They were instantly covered with an adhesive that would harden and stick to any surface, and he tossed them at the bottom of a Covenant elevator. They stuck to the hard metal, primed, and were ready to be remotely detonated.

He ejected two of his IMP's missiles into his hands and primed them for remote detonation as well. Activating his cloak, he stealthily walked over to the two raised platforms. Making sure to not disturb the two Stalker forms waiting for something to happen, he quietly placed one missile into a small growth of organic material that covered the bottom of the platform.

He maneuvered around the room to the other platform, where he quickly did the same thing.

Suddenly, the Chiefs' head was wracked with pain as his sight became tinged with green. Tentacles appeared in the corners of his vision as the Gravemind spoke. This time, it wasn't placid and mellow, but furious.

"**Time has taught me **_**patience**_**! But basking in new freedom, I will know **_**all that I possess**_**!**" raged the Gravemind. John's head pounded and his vision shook due to the sheer potency of the Gravemind's hatred and telepathic powers.

The cries of the Flood filled the room as John's cloaking was disabled by the Gravemind. If the Flood had eyes, then 78 pairs of eyes would be staring him to death by now. As one, the mass of Flood reacted.

_Shit!_ he thought, as the Flood moved towards him. His plan would have to be put in motion now or he would not leave this room alive.

Diverting energy from the reactor and the shields to the thruster pack, the Chief jumped as hard as he could and activated the pack. Muscles as dense as iron pushed the Chief up, aided by the armor, his suit, and thruster pack. Jumping over 30 meters into the air, he detonated the missiles.

Two furious explosions destroyed the platforms on either side of the room, vaporizing anything around them and bringing the Flood on the platforms crashing to the organic floor. The Master Chief level his wrist cannon at the power couplings keeping the elevator in the air and fired. The large round impacted against the couplings and detonated, showering sparks everywhere. As the power failed, the elevator came crashing down to the ground, crushing two dozen Combat forms and a Tank form beneath its mighty bulk.

And then the thermobarics went off. A charge went off inside the grenades, spraying the fuel around the room. When the fuel reached an optimum fuel-to-air ratio, the second charge went off. As the fire ball started, it interacted with the methane in the room. With an optimum methane-to-air ratio in the room, it too reacted to the second charge. Soon, the entire room was vaporized in a massive burst of heat and light, and everything organic soon found itself torn apart by the shockwave and subsequent vacuum.

The Master Chief successfully made his way through the door at the top of the room before the second charge went off, and turned around. With a massive _fwoosh_ a gout of flame came through the door, raising the external temperature several degrees warmer.

He turned around again and faced the door at the end of the hallway. His walk was suddenly halted as his Cortana flashed in his vision again. Once again, the blue tinged his vision, and he found it hard to walk.

"_I have walked the edge of the abyss. I have seen your future, and I have learned!_" she screamed, panic detectable in her voice. Suddenly, her color changed from blue to green as she clutched her head, writhing in pain.

Green replaced blue at the edges of the Chief's vision, and his mind felt as if it were about to explode.

"_**Submit**_**! **_**End her torment and my own**_**!**" yelled the Gravemind, his rage becoming more and more palpable. Thankfully, the pain receded and John could think again. He continued on his journey, eventually coming the door at the end of the hallway.

It slid open with its customary chime, now much lower in pitch and garbled in sound.

He checked his corners as he entered the truly massive room. While he could see the ceiling and how far up it went, he couldn't see the bottom of the room.

"_Warning: high levels of plasma detected. Location: High Charity reactor core_," his suit warned. The Master Chief logged that information away in the back of his head as the waypoint for Cortana lead him across the center of the room.

There were three walkways leading to a large, glowing pylon in the middle of the room. What looked like cores were suspended from the ceiling, no doubt feeding power throughout the rest of the massive space station. He noted the sheer depth fall in the center of the room. If someone fell, there was no way they would ever be coming back out. He continued forward until he came to the door the waypoint was highlighted above.

The door opened, and the Chief stepped inside. The moment his foot hit the metal inside the hallway, his vision swam.

"_There will be no more sadness, no more anger, no more envy!_" cried Cortana. Panic was beginning to overtake her; she was succumbing to rampancy,

His mind reeled back in horror as the Gravemind spoke to him again. Like before, the Gravemind was furious, ready to tear apart planet after planet to find what Cortana hid. Unlike before, he wasn't just furious.

He was enraged. And the entire world would burn for ever daring to stand in his way.

"**You **_**will**_ **show me what she his...or I shall feast upon your **_**bones**_**!**" it screamed; the voices of those it had consumed speaking with it. John's head felt as if someone had stabbed it multiple times with pieces of poisoned, serrated glass.

But pain was an old friend of his, one that he had met a very long time ago. He shook off the feeling, but hadn't gotten further than two steps before Cortana spoke again. This time, however, her image was green instead of blue.

"_This is UNSC AI Serial Number CTN 0452-9. I am a monument to all your sins_," she spoke. Her voice was distorted, and she was calm and collected. But what got to Chief was how monotone it was. It was as if the Gravemind had brainwashed her.

The Chief sprinted to the end of the hallway and barrelled through the door. Inside, his eyes came to rest on the site before him: Cortana, lying prone, in a stasis field in the central podium.

There was little time for her and the Ark. Finding no way to shut off the stasis field, the Master Chief went to the next best thing: He punched it. The first time, the shield flickered as a layer was strapped away. He punched it again, and another layer fell away. Finally, using all the strength he could muster, John punched the final layer of the statis field.

All was quiet as Cortana lay there, unable to move.

_The Gravemind was unrelenting_, thought John.

The silence continued for a couple seconds until it was broken by Cortana's voice.

"You found me," she weakly said. The animated code that used to run up and down her holographic body had ceased, and was no longer moving.

The Master Chief leaned closer, putting his hands on either side of the podium. Cortana continued to lay there, her face filled with pain and shame.

She continued.

"But so much of me is wrong… out of place. You might be too late…"

John kneeled down until he was looking her straight in the eyes.

"You know me. When I make a promise…"

"You… keep it." She raised her head until she was looking straight into John's visor. Straight into his soul. "I _do_ know how to pick 'em."

"Lucky me. Do you still have it?"

Cortana slowly rose up from the podium. She stood to her full height, and the lines of code started flowing over her again. She opened her palm, and a hologram of the Index from Installation 04 appeared hovering over it.

"The Activation Index from the first Halo ring. A little souvenir I hung onto… just in case." She looked around, thinking about how to get out.

"Got an escape plan?" she asked. Funnily enough, she already knew what plan he had in his head.

"Thought I'd try shooting my way out - mix things up a little," he replied. He took Cortana's old data chip out of his helmet and held it in front of her. Cortana took one last look at the room she had been in for weeks, and then touched the core of the chip. She uploaded herself into the chip, and John, at long last, inserted Cortana back into his armor.

Once again, he felt the sensation of liquid mercury pouring into his head. Cortana spoke.

"Just keep your head down… There's two of us in here now remember?" she said, pretending to be exasperated.

"I remember," replied the Chief. He turned around and headed back up the hallway when the Gravemind roared.

"**Now, at last, I see! Her secret is **_**revealed!**_" he yelled.

As they made it back into the reactor room, the cyborg noticed that there were flood in the room. Some Ranged forms were on the roof, while Tank and Combat forms were ambling about the room.

"Wait, we need to buy some time. This reactor... start a chain reaction. _Destroy_ High Charity," said Cortana. The Master Chief nodded, and fired his wrist cannon at one of the overhanging cores. It erupted into purple fire and showered the ground near the pylon with sparks, and the entire room groaned as power started failing. The lights flickered, but came back on.

The Flood forms turned as one cried out. Several combat forms took cover and began firing at his location. The Chief took cover behind one of the support pillars of the ceiling, as M/AM rounds impacted against the wall and other pillars. Some of the rounds penetrated, but others exploded, showering the Chief with shrapnel. The Chief activated a micro-drone stored in the thigh of his armor, cloaked it, and had it scout out Flood positions. The drone connected with the Chiefs mind, showing him real-time locations of the Flood. The Combat forms were advancing forward in pairs, each covering the other. Several Stalkers were walking on top of the platform's ceiling, right on top of the cyborg. Four Ranged forms were covering the other Flood by being attached to the ceiling of the entire room, where they could get the best view. Finally, the video showed five Tank forms walking across the platform that held the pylon, as well as a dozen Combat forms closing on his position.

An idea came to his head. His thruster pack could sustain flight for someone his size and weight for 20 mintues, before needing to be powered down to prevent damaged from overheating. It could hold him aloft in the air, allowing him to get a massive height advantage on his enemies.

Unfortunately for the Flood, they couldn't. WIth ttraveling faster than a pelican going hypersonic, the Master Chief had the drone highlight the weak structural points of the walkways going to the center platform, and activated his IMP's. He switched covers, letting off a few shots from his SACW-S, killing several Combat forms before they could get any further as shots from the Flood peppered his cover, turning it into swiss cheese. As he sailed through the air, he saw the weakpoints and highlighted them in red.

He sent the locations of the areas to the IMP's, and locked the coordinates in place. As he landed, he fired the missiles. They streaked out of the MLRS tubes and sailed through the air. The Flood were not expecting the attack, and didn't see the missiles coming until it was too late.

They impacted the purple metal and exploded. The warheads released their anti-matter payload, and three blue explosions rocked the room. The sheer heat of the anti-matter explosion melted right through the thin metal, and the shockwave knocked blew the metal apart.

The platform groaned and creaked as it's only supports, the walkways, became separated from the rest of the room. With a crash, the entire platform fell to the depths of High Charity, taking everything on it to their doom. This included the Tank and Combat forms that that had rushed to kill him, all of which now lay at the bottom of the pit.

He took aim at another core and fired. Like the last one, it too exploded into sparks and purple fire. The entire station groaned as it's other reactors began overloading.

_One last core_, thought the Chief. The Ranged forms had zeroed in on his position, covering him with sharp spines that were deflected off his shielding. He jumped out into the now open room, his thruster pack firing, and started picking off the Ranged Forms one by one.

Fire from other Combat forms caused him to dodge and weave erratically, moving in all directions as his armor stabilized his arms. It kept his aim from flying all over the place as he fired at the Combat forms. M/AM rounds impacted against Flood and ground alike, spraying pieces of molten metal and corrupted flesh everywhere. But, as their namesake suggested, they continued pouring in and firing at the cyborg.

He switched the shotgun to full auto and laid waste to the support pillars holding up the platforms the Flood were on. At the same time, he fired a missile from one of his IMP's, which streaked towards the final core. It detonated, destroying the former space stations final reactor and causing the rest of the the station to start overloading.

The Gravemind roared in pain as parts of the station began to explode. Energy conduits overloaded and detonated, sometimes big, sometimes small. With the plasma cores now destroyed, High Charity's real reactor core - the one that went down hundreds of meters below the reactor room - begain to undergo a critical reaction. In a matter of minutes, it would overload, and High Charity would be no more.

Which was why the Chief had to get out, and fast.

"You hurt it, Chief. But not for long. We need to get to Halo - destroy the Flood once and for all," said Cortana.

The drone returned to the Chief's thigh plating, transformed, and slid into a slot. Engaging his cannon, the cyborg fired on the main Flood position, reducing it to piles of dead flesh and organs. Green and black ichor splattered the walls as a cannon shell blew up inside a Tank form. Shotgun pellets slammed the ground around the feet of the Flood, causing small explosions that vaporized limbs and other body parts. The Master Chief jetted to and fro, dodging return fire from the Flood. He chucked an acid grenade at one of the support pillars that kept the platform attached to the ceiling. The AoE weapon started spewing acid in multiple directions. The acid, a 0 on the pH scale, melted right through everything it touched.

Biomass that had collected on the walls and ground turned into puddles of goo, and flesh slid off the Flood in troughs. Metal sizzled and dissolved as the acid went to work. Soon, everything in a ten meter radius had been dissolved. Piles of Flood goo lay on the ground where Combat forms had once been standing. The pillar holding up the platform groaned as the metal strained to stay together. With around 90% of the material on the bottom half of the pillar now gone, there was now very little holding up the platform.

The Chief fired upon the last support pillar, the other two now gone. M/AM pellets hit home, as large chunks of Covenant metal were gouged out. Finally, the killer shot hit home, and the pillar fell. The platform, held up only by the pillar that had been nearly destroyed with acid, groaned and buckled.

It suddenly gave way as the weight became too much for the single pillar. It was torn from the top, and the platform crashed against the walls of the reactor, tumbling down into the massive energies below. The Flood that remained on it suffered the same fate as the other platform: vaporized by the sheer heat of the plasma reactor.

The way out now open, the Chief took his chance amidst the gun and spike fire and dashed for it. He tumbled on through, rolling to his feet as he scanned for hostiles. Not seeing any, he ran through the station as explosions rocked it left and right. He dashed through falling debris and ducked into a hallway that would lead him and Cortana back to the original drop point.

He came to a room that contained even more Flood. Right as the Spartan raised his rifle, though, a falling walkway above fell and crushed the group. His luck, as ever, held out. Unfortunately, there was no exit, and several tons of biomass that had fallen from above and covered the other exit. Several more explosions rocked the room as more debris and organic material fell.

"An explosion just made us an exit! I'll mark it on your HUD, Chief, go!" said Cortana. A waypoint appeared in the Chief's vision as he turned around. It pointed to another door, about five meters away. The Chief quickly rushed through it, just as another explosion ripped through the station.

"Analyzing the route ahead... I have it mostly figured out. Just keep moving, I'll update your HUD as you go," affirmed Cortana. The Master Chief sped up as he moved on through High Charity. Everywhere he went, explosions blew open walls and ceilings, and sometimes even holes opened up in the ground. Fights with the Flood were brief, as the Chief rushed to escape High Charity. The waypoints eventually led him to a dead end in a what seemed to be a maintenance room.

"Cortana?" he asked, waiting for her to find him another route while he scanned for targets.

"Corridors ahead have all collapsed. I'll find another way, Chief; be careful," she replied. John grunted his confirmation and waited. He checked his motion trackers again; there was nothing. Even though his armor had a state-of-the-art sensor suite onboard, Chief Mendez had always taught the Spartans to trust their instincts more than machinery. But as John scanned the area, he didn't find any Flood.

A waypoint was suddenly placed on his HUD, right over an exposed maintenance pathway.

"There, Chief, into the maintenance tunnel."

He nodded behind his helmet and walked through it.

As he continued to move, he sent a neural command to the dumb A.I. aboard the Pelican, high abve High Charity, to come pick him up. It complied, and began it's descent from 20,000 feet. At it's current speed, it would arrive at the pick up point in a minute.

It was when he came with 300 meters of the pick up point that something appeared on his sensors.

"I've got a friendly contact! But who would be _crazy_ enough to come in here?" asked Cortana. A Combat form came at John, MA7C in hand. A single blast from his shotgun put the corrupted being out of its misery.

As the Chief rounded the corner, Cortana got her answer. The Arbiter was there with a UNSC flamethrower in hand. Dozens of Infection, Carrier, Pure, and Combat forms were closing on Thel's position, but were kept at bay by the stream of white phosphorous. Flesh and Biomass were burned and boiled away, and the flames continued to lick at the floor. White phosphorous stuck to it's targets and burned away everything: flesh, organs, cloth, and armor. It was like the infamous Greek Fire, but hotter and lasted longer.

The Arbiter turned and noticed the Chief coming up at his rear.

"Spartan, I came as soon as I could. But High Charity's time is up, and we must leave immediately!" said Thel.

The Master Chief nodded.

"Way ahead of you," he returned. Cortana butted in.

"Wait, you two made nice? What else have you been up to while I was gone...?" she said, amusement in her voice.

A Combat form was blasted by the Chief's shotgun as a Tank form was covered in white phosophorous.

"I see you have found your construct. Good. Now we can light the ring, and wipe the Flood from the face of the galaxy!"

A loud whine was heard from behind the two warriors. Turning around, they spotted the Pelican approaching, it's doors open. And just in time too. As the alien and the cyborg started for the Pelican, dozens of Combat forms rushed into the room in a final attempt to overwhelm them.

The Master Chief and the Arbiter bolted for the Pelican, and got inside just in time. Several combat forms fired their weapons at the Pelican, but it's shield popped up, deflecting plasma bolts and M/AM rounds alike.

Inside the pelican, John placed Cortana into the holotank and got in the pilot's seat. One of the Gravemind's tentacles advanced towards the dropship, but was forced to retreat by the intense heat from the engines. The Pelican took off, but the tentacle came back and tried to wrap around the dropship, but John escaped it's grip by throttling the engines. However, one of the port engines was suddenly hit by a rocket launcher, and was heavily damaged. The pelican surged forward and hit supersonic speeds, barely escaping from High Charity as it's core went critical. In a massive explosion, High Charity was no more.

* * *

The Pelican sailed out through the atmosphere and into the reaches of space. The multitude of outboard sensors reflected data back to the recessed cockpit of the Pelican, keeping the pilots safe. Inside, John aimed the Pelican towards the under-construction Halo ring.

A transmission came through the COM, from the Rtas 'Vadum, the Shipmaster of the CAS-class Assault Carrier, the _Shadow of Intent_.

"We are aboard, Humans... and Sangheili. Will you not come with us, brother?" he asked. Everyone was off the Ark, and all ships, aside from the _Forward Unto Dawn_, were about to head back through the portal to Earth.

"No. This is our fight. And I will see it finished," the Arbiter said in return. The Pelican continued past the massive form of the Assault Carrier and onwards to the Halo ring.

The Arbiter and Chief watched as the joint Human-Sangheili fleet activated their engines and headed towards the portal that led home. One by one they disappeared into the swirling black vortex and were transported to Earth.

Soon, all that was left in space was the _Forward Unto Dawn_.

"Johnson, do you have the Frigate?" asked Cortana. Johnson activated a video COM with the Pelican.

"Yes, ma'am. I'll land her as close to the control room as I can," he replied.

"Safe is better than close, Sergeant Major."

"Roger that. And ma'am, It's good to have you back."

The Pelican arrived at Halo, smoke trailing behind it. They traveled over several areas still under construction, and eventually found the Control Room. It was in a mountain filled with snow, similar to that of the first Halo ring. Unfortunately, the Pelican was too badly damaged from the fights before to make a normal landing.

With no other way to make a smooth landing, the Chief crash-landed the Pelican into a snowy cliffside. After checking to make sure everyone was fine, John pulled Cortana's chip out of the holotank and placed into back into his helmet.

Both the Chief and the Arbiter clambered out of the rear of the Pelican and looked around. Everything was so old and new at the same time. They look up just in time to see the Dawn slowly drift overhead, looking for a landing spot. Luckily, Johnson found a good area, and settled the kilometer-long ship into a hovering pattern right above some platforms.

"Halo. It's so new... unfinished. I'm not exactly sure what will happen when we fire it..." commented Cortana. The cyborg wasn't sure either about what would happen, but he did know what they would do.

"We'll head for the portal," he remarked. He turned to the Arbiter, who tossed him his dropped SACW-R. He caught it in both hands. He turned it over to check to see if it got damaged. Satisfied that it hadn't been broken in any way, the Chief turned his attention back to the mission.

"And we'll all go home.

The Chief and Arbiter scavenged up what ammunition and weapons they could. Some grenades, a couple rockets, and a shotgun for the Arbiter. It struggled to fit in his large hands, but it would be better against the Flood than his plasma rifles. When they had enough, the started off towards the Control Room.

"Head through the cliffs," ordered Cortana.

They made their way through some icy caves. The air around them was cold and frosty, and ice covered the landscape. The cyborg and the alien moved through the caves; their armors keeping them warm and preventing them from slipping.

They eventually arrived at the foot of the pyramid-like structure of the Control Room. It looked exactly like the original Control Room from the Alpha Halo, right down to the stairways leading up to the entrance.

They came out into an open clearing covered with snow and checked around for hostiles. Finding nothing, they quickly moved on.

Suddenly, Flood Dispersal pods began to fall into the field. They burst open on contact, releasing the Flood back onto the ring. Soon, dozens of Flood forms were swarming the area, and the two were having a tough time fighting them off.

The voice of the Gravemind raged, his anger unabated.

"**DID YOU THINK ME... **_**DEFEATED?!**_" he yelled.

The Master Chief and the Arbiter fired at anything that moved. Combat forms were blasted away, but every time one was killed two more would take its place. Infection forms bursted against their shields in an attempt to infect them, but they held.

The Master Chief fired a blast from his shotgun at a Sangheili combat form wielding a rocket launcher. The pellets slammed home, but not before the rocket was fired.

It impacted against the ground next to him, throwing his large bulk several meters away. He hit the ground and rolled onto his back before assuming a firing position from his knee.

"_Warning: shield at 25 percent_," droned his suit. A Carrier form waddled towards him, but was torn apart by several M/AM pellets. It fell to the ground, sending Infection forms everywhere. A Tank form rushed at the Chief, who blasted it away with his cannon.

"Spartan! Are you alright?" asked the Arbiter. He was busy dealing with several Combat forms. An M100 CAWS was held in his left hand while he slashed and cut up Flood with an energy sword in his left. The Arbiter's motion tracker pinged as a large contact rushed at him. He turned around, sliding the shotgun onto the magnetic plates on his back armor, and pulled out a plasma grenade.

He charged at the Tank and ducked underneath it as years of training took over. He came around behind it, activated the grenade, and shoved it into the Tank's body cavity. His powerful legs kicked it from behind, and he rolled backwards. The grenade exploded, vaporizing the Tank and everything around it.

John twisted to the side as an infected Elite swing an energy sword at him. He activated his energy broadswords and blocked the next swing, electricity arcing as plasma met plasma. He stabbed into the Elite and ripped upwards, nearly cutting the Combat form in half.

"I'm fine. We need to move to the Control Room; there's not enough time to fight them off!" he yelled back.

More Flood dispersal pods arrived on the scene, bringing more and more Flood. The Master Chief activated his thruster pack to dodge an incoming missile, and the Arbiter jumped over the swing of an infected marine.

The cyborg fired his IMP's at Flood position, smearing the ground with green biomass and ichor. Body parts flew through the air as the shockwave knocked over several Combat forms. He leveled his cannon at a pair of tanks and fired, bursting them open and throwing biomass in all directions.

The Arbiter agreed to his command, and the two began to fight their way through the Flood. They pushed through the valley, dodging weapons fire and shooting anything infected. Several sentinels deployed from ports in along the sides of the Control Room and began targeting the Flood.

A tank came up from behind, but was speared by a crimson beam of light. Biomass boiled away as the deadly laser burned right through it, ultimately leaving a pile of steaming biomass. It was the only thing indicating that a Flood form had passed this way.

Johnson appeared on the cliffside, a Spartan Laser in hand. He took aim at the larger, stronger Flood forms, taking off some of the pressure coming from the cyborg and aliens left flank.

"I got you covered, Chief. Meet you at the top of that tower," he said over a COM line. More Flood forms, especially the Pure ones, were speared by multiple lasers arcing out from the weapon.

"Roger that, Sergeant," replied John. He fired his shotgun at another Flood form that was attempting to sneak up on the Arbiter, who returned the favor by shooting a Combat form that was trying to pounce on the Chief.

They made their up the right side of the Control Room, blasting away more Flood forms. A pair of infected Brutes dropped from above, wielding Maulers and Spike rifles. The Master Chief raised his SETS as the Arbiter leapt over him, killing the two with well placed shotgun blasts.

Several Ranged forms opened fire on Sentinels from their positions on the Control Room's tower, dropping a couple. The Master Chief deployed one of his combat drones, keeping it close to him and the Arbiter to provide cover fire.

Plasma bolts impacted against the shielding of the Chief, who simply shrugged it off and fired back at the offending Combat form. The Arbiter took cover behind an outcropping of Forerunner metal and waited for his shields to recharge.

Suddenly, the amount of incoming fire increased dramatically as a dozen Combat forms came in from multiple sides. A pair of Tank forms appeared from around the corner, and Stalkers scuttled around on the sides of the Control Room.

The cyborg and alien's weapons raged, blowing apart multiple Flood forms. John chucked a grenade at a group of Combat forms, vaporizing them and sending biomass in several directions. His shield flared up as spines from Ranged forms hit his shields. A tank charged at him, and he rolled out of the way. The Combat Drone fired it's quad laser guns at the Tank form, peppering it with large amounts of searing energy.

"Johnson, we need support now!," yelled the Chief as he sent a signal to his IMP's to start targeting the larger Flood forms. His missile ammo was beginning to run low, and he needed to save them for the more powerful enemies. His 40mm cannon fired again, taking out a pair of Stalkers crawling towards him.

He fired an MML at one of the Tanks, blowing it apart and several carrier forms around it. Infection swarms scuttled along the ground, wearing down his energy shielding bit by bit.

Help came in the form of a massive laser beam tearing through and incinerating a dozen Combat forms. Smaller lasers peppered the larger Pure forms, and pieces of biomass started coming off in chunks.

The Arbiter fired his shotgun at an exposed Ranged form, knocking it off the wall. He chucked an M/AM cluster-grenade at a large group of Flood forms. Multiple explosions from the grenade tore through the Flood position, allowing the Chief and the Arbiter to move up.

"Keep moving, Chief. I've got your back," said Johnson as he fired the laser weapon again. It speared right through another Tank, incinerating it and vaporizing the biomass.

The Chief motioned to the Arbiter, and they moved up, taking out more Flood along the way. More Flood dispersal pods hit the area beneath the Control Room, and some hit the platforms leading up to it. Flood began pouring in from all sides as Combat forms inhumanly leapt up the side of the Control room and attempted to kill the cyborg and his alien ally.

More weapons fire sprayed around the Chief and the Arbiter, some of it powerful enough to gouge holes in the Forerunner plating beneath their feet. The Combat Drone continued firing, drawing fire away from the superhuman and the Sangheili. They pushed forward, resisting all efforts to get them away from the Control Room. The Master Chief stored away his IMP's for conservation efforts as two missiles wiped out two dozen Combat forms and 30 Infection forms.

He leveled his cannon again and fired. The round smashed against a formation of Stalker and Ranged forms setting up on the tower above their heads. The group was incinerated and blown apart by the blast and heat, and a meter-wide, ten-centimeter deep hole was gouged in the Forerunner plating by the anti-matter.

"Flood are crawling all over that tower; watch yourself," said Johnson over the COM's. The Master Chief and Arbiter were on the second to last level of the Control Room, but Flood continued to stand in their way. There were more numbers than his shotgun could handle, so he reformed the SACW back into it's components and had it restructured into the SACW-MMG. A medium machine gun built specifically for Spartans, it utilized .50 caliber M/AM rounds fired at 600 rpm at a velocity of mach 13 for devastating effect.

Assuming a firing position, the Master Chief pulled the trigger. The rounds went right through the bodies of the Flood, carrying large amounts of biomass with them. Multiple Flood forms were ripped in half by the sheer speed and mass of the rounds, which went on to impact against the walls of the Control Room. The rounds dug themselves nearly an inch into the walls before detonating, creating massive gouges and holes in the Forerunner plating.

The Chief set the rounds to internal detonation, causing them to explode inside their target instead of passing right through them. Biomass and pieces of destroyed weapons flew in multiple directions as the Flood themselves were vaporized. In a matter of moments, the entire Flood position, made up of nearly three dozen Flood forms, not including the Infection ones, was annihilated.

They moved up to the top floor of the Control Room. Johnson quickly joined them, and they held off another wave of Flood.

"Spark? You in there? Open the damn door!" yelled Johnson.

"Of course, Reclaimer. Just as soon as you dispose of all proximate Flood threats. I'm afraid containment protocols do not allow me to-" replied Spark.

"Yeah, yeah, I hear you!" impatiently said Johnson.

"Was that the Monitor? You didn't tell me he was here. Well, we _are_ finally doing what he wanted," commented Cortana.

The Flood attacked again, halting any conversation. All three of them let loose with their weapons as additional Sentinels arrived to provide support. Multi-Lasers from Johnson's M7 G/GNR incinerated numerous Flood forms, while the Arbiter fought off a number of Combat forms. The Chief was targeting the Pure forms, and was slowly pushing them back.

But like their namesake, the Flood kept on coming. The Gravemind was pulling out all the stops, not wanting the ring to be fired.

"**I have beaten fleets of **_**thousands!**_ **Consumed a galaxy of flesh and mind and bone!**" he said. The intensity of the attack increased.

Dozens of Flood forms surged across the front of the Control Room, nearly drowning the defenders in a sea of Flood. The Arbiter was tossed aside as a Tank form charged at him, his body crackling with energy as his shield broke during the attack. The Tank went after the Chief, who shot it several times with his MMG. It fell apart to the assault, and the Arbiter got back up again. Finding that he needed a gun with a faster rate of fire, the Chief remodeled his SACW-MMG to a SACW-SMG, and activated another one in his left hand. The rounds, while smaller and less powerful, were fired far faster in order to maximize damage against an enemy in close quarters. At a rate of 1,200 rpm, it was the fastest firing gun in his arsenal. Because all it's ammo came from the armor's reactor, the only drawback it had was overheating.

He took aim at multiple forms and opened fire, for at this range he could not miss. Flood forms were ripped apart as the guns fired 20 M/AM rounds a second. They lacked the penetrating or stopping power of a shotgun, but it wasn't needed. Flood forms withered and seemed to come apart by the sheer number of rounds. They were blown apart, vaporized, and torn to shreds.

A burst of SMG fire cut down an infected Brute. A laser incinerated a Tank. An energy sword sliced a Sangheili in half. Sentinel beams popped numerous Infection forms. The battle raged around the defenders, and it seemed as though the Flood would not stop.

The Chief was forced to change the SMG in his left hand to a shotgun to deal with an oncoming Tank form, and jetted to the side to avoid a rear attack by an infected marine with an MA7C. He blasted away with his shotgun in one hand and SMG in the other.

Johnson put his M7 G/GNR on his back and fired the cannon on his exoskeleton. It annihilated a shambling group of carrier forms. The carriers released several dozen Infection forms, all of which were picked apart by the energy weapons of the Sentinels.

The Arbiter threw a frag grenade hard enough that it got stuck inside the biomass of an infected Human. He kicked it back into two other infected marines, and the marines were shredded by the explosive shrapnel of the grenade.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, the tide of attacks stopped. The Flood had receded, but it was like the tide. It would return, and it wouldn't be low like before. It would be high. And it would wipe Johnson, Thel, and John without a care in the world.

"Open up! Coast is clear," Johnson told Guilty Spark.

"Not for long. I'm tracking additional Dispersal Pods. They'll be hitting any minute!" said Cortana.

Guilty Spark complied with Johnson, and opened up the doors to the Control Room.

"Chief, Arbiter! Let's move!" said Johnson as their way was opened. The trio moved inside, with the Flood rushed up the platforms to the entrance of the Control Room.

A deep, rumbling voice pierced the silence the trio experienced as they moved through the hallways.

"**Do I take life or give it? Who is victim, and who is foe?**" asked the Gravemind, to no one in particular. He seemed resigned, as if he knew what was coming and couldn't do anything to stop it.

"It's trying to rebuild itself on this ring!" said Cortana.

"Hurry! Control Room's close!" Johnson replied.

The trio moved inside the Control Room. It was familiar only to the Master Chief and Cortana. Johnson and the Arbiter looked around at the expansive room. Everyone turned their heads when they heard the Flood approaching. Fortunately, the doors behind them closed, keeping them safe. For now.

"Yank me, Chief," said Cortana.

John reached behind his helmet and pulled out Cortana's data chip, and gave it look over in his palm.

"I'm not gonna lose her too," said Johnson. The Master Chief nodded and tossed the data chip to Johnson. The Master Chief and Arbiter took up defensive positions in front of the door as Johnson moved towards the control panel in the back of the room.

It was then that 343 Guilty Spark floated down from the top of the Control Room. Humming to himself, he hovered down to Johnson's level and accompanied him to the control panel.

"Oh, hello! Wonderful news - the Installation is almost complete!" cheerfully remarked Spark.

"Terrific," replied Johnson, uninterested.

"Yes... isn't it?" There was a short but uneasy silence. "I have begun my simulations. No promises, but initial results indicate that this facility should be ready to fire...in just a few more days!"

"We don't have a few more days!" impatiently said Johnson. He moved to activate the ring.

"Bu-bu-but a premature firing will _destroy_ the Ark!" Spark said, shock in his voice.

"Deal with it," said Johnson, dismissively.

"...will destroy this Installation," quietly said Spark.

Spark's "eye" turned red and blasted Johnson with his energy beam. It instantly broke his exoskeletons shielding, boiled through the back armor plating, and incinerated his lower back.

"Aaaah!" screamed Johnson.

"Unacceptable! _Unacceptable!_ Absolutely unacceptable!" said Spark.

John turned around to see Johnson on the floor, his exoskeleton and back smoking. He charged forward, attempting to rush to his aid. But Spark turned on him as well, blasting him with his energy beam. The force of the beam flung the Spartan back, his shields

popping by the intense beam. Golden energy crackled around the Chief as his shields attempted to recharge.

"Protocol dictates action! I see now that helping you was _wrong!_" said Spark.

"_Warning: shields at 0 percent. Shield generator slightly damaged: shield generator at 95 percent efficiency. Attempting to power shields… _" droned the suit.

The Arbiter heard the commotion and moved forward to assist the Spartan, but Spark shot him too. The blast forced him out of the room, and Spark shut the doors. Thel pounded on the doors to no avail. He could only wait and listen to what happened inside. He could only hope that the Spartan could finish the mission.

Back inside the room, John tried to get to his feet, but Spark blasted him again. His shields hadn't recharged, and the armor plating was forced to be tested against the mettle of a Forerunner energy weapon. The armor smoked as the intense heat burnt away the paint job, heated the interior of the armor and suit, slightly melted the nano-weave on the Chief, and caused third-degree burns on his chest. Amazingly, the chest plating held, but only just.

"_Warning, warning: chest armor plating integrity at 91 percent. Hydrostatic gel at 84 capacity. Chest nano-weave at 89 percent. Third-degree burns detected on nano-weave chest. Repairing…_" warned the suit.

He glanced upwards into Spark's eye in defiance. It had turned back to blue, and Spark spoke.

"You are the child of my makers. Inheritor of all they left behind. You _are_ Forerunner! But this ring…" his eye turned red again "... is _mine_."

John reached for his gun as Spark hovered over the control panel.

"I take no pleasure in doing what must be done," calmly said Spark.

John opened fire with his SACW-AR. M/AM rounds impacted heavily against Spark's shield, immediately dissipating the weapons fire. He fired one of his IMP's at Spark, but it dealt no damage to him. John tried to rush at Spark, but was pushed away by a repulsion field. Spark responded by firing his energy beam again. It was weaker than before, as he had to divert energy to both the repulsion field and energy shield, but it still dropped his shields by 30%.

"You do _not_ deserve this ring!"

John fired his cannon in conjunction with another missile and bursts from his AR, but Spark's energy shield was just too strong. Nothing made it past, and Spark began to corner John. He fired the energy beam again, which dropped the Spartan's shield by another 30%.

"_I_ have kept it safe. It belongs to _me_!" hysterically said Spark, Unnoticed by Spark however, Johnson managed to sit up halfway and shouldered the M7. He charged up the gun, and prepared to fire at Spark.

"Not for long!" said Johnson defiantly. He fired the powerful laser weapon, and caught Guilty Spark off-guard. He was blasted away from John and fell to the floor, temporarily inert.

Weakly, Johnson was able to get out a single sentence before passing the M7 to John and falling unconscious:

"Kick his ass."

The gun slid across the ground, and John picked it up right as Spark rose up from the floor. He flew at a tilted angle, and his metal body was visibly twisted and deformed.

"Damage! _Damage!_ That hurt, Reclaimer!" he said.

He fired his energy beam again, but John ducked to the side, the M7 glowing as it powered up. With a roar, the M7 lanced out with it's crimson beam, striking the Monitor and dealing massive damage to him.

Following the shot, Spark flew at a more tilted angle. His casing was cracked and deformed in multiple places, and blue plasma leaked from ruptured power lines as he started to spark.

"Accept your le-gacy!" he cried, his voice distorted. He fired his energy beam again, and it struck the Chief. Due to his current state, though, it only drained his shields by 25%.

The cyborg ignored him, charged the laser again, and fired. The beam struck home once again, and Guilty Spark was knocked away.

His casing became more distorted from the shot, and parts of it were sheared off completely. More plasma leaked from his sides, and he began sparking more ferociously. The right side of his eye had broken off, and there was a blue glow underneath his eye.

"I a-a-a-am the Monitor of Installation Z-Zero F-Four!" he said, his voice breaking and deteriorating.

Even with his suit and armor diagnostics, he knew Spark was only one shot away from being destroyed. Once again, John charged the laser, directing large amounts of power from his suits reactor and into the gun to put Spark out of commission. Permanently.

_This is for Johnson!_ he thought, and fired one last time.

The crimson lance struck home for one final time. It impacted directly against Spark's casing, as the energy shield generator had been destroyed. Spark began to vibrate erratically.

"_Oh myyyyyyyyyy-aaahh!_" he screamed, before exploding. The Monitor of Installation 04 was dead.

John dropped the M7 and rushed over to Johnson. He was still alive, but barely. The wound had destroyed most of his internal organs, and had destroyed his lower spine. Pieces of molten metal had fused with his skin due to the sheer heat, and there were sixth-degree wounds all throughout his lower back. His exoskeleton and armor did their best to repair his spine and keep him alive, but there was no way Johnson would survive this.

He was going to die, and he knew it.

The doors behind him opened and the Arbiter came in, checking for hostiles. But when he saw the Spartan over Johnson's dying form, his gun dropped to his side. He slowly walked over to the two, remorse in his eyes.

John kneeled down to Johnson.

"I'm getting you out of here," he said. Johnson coughed, and struggled to speak.

"No you're... no you're not," he replied, sorrow apparent in his voice.

Johnson grabbed John's hand with Cortana's chip in his. He held tightly, and exacted two promises from John.

"Don't - don't let her go. Don't... _ever_ let her go." He coughed again, before giving his final words.

"Send me out... with a bang."

Johnson fell backwards, the light dimming in his eyes as he succumbed to his wounds. John took Cortana from Johnson and let go of his hand, which fell to the ground beside him. One of the few people John had ever entrusted his name to was now dead. He reached around the neck of Johnson and pulled off his E-Tags, closing them in his fist. He stuffed them into a utility pocket on the hip of his armor, and stood up.

Thel looked down at the prone form of Johnson. He was the first Human he had met that had put aside his hatred and differences with the Sangheili in order to stop Tartarus. He had watched as Johnson fought against the toughest enemies, never giving up, always finishing the fight.

He had come to respect the Human; his dogged tenaciousness and the way he he spoke to his soldiers to encourage had impressed him and many other Sangheili.

In an immense sign of respect, he knelt down and closed Johnson's eyes for the final time.

John walked a few steps forward to the control panel, and wordlessly released Cortana into Halo's core as he gripped her data core tightly.

She turned to look at Johnson's dead body; the Arbiter kneeling over it.

"Chief… I'm so sorry."

John said nothing. He started to slightly shake the data chip but stopped. Cortana bowed her head, her eyes closed, and made a gesture. She inserted the index into the control panel, and Halo was activated. She uploaded herself back into the chip as firing sequences for the ring started up.

John placed Cortana's chip back into his helmet and turned around. He saw the Arbiter staring at him, and nodded. The Arbiter nodded back. A brilliant beam of light erupted from the core behind the Chief, and the whole Control Room began to shake and fall apart. The Chief and Arbiter ran for the door as Johnson's body slid off the platform. On the way, the Chief made sure to pick up the M7 from the ground.

The two ran out of the Control Room, doors closing behind them.

Thel looked at John, grief in his eyes.

"I am sorry Spartan. But come; we must leave the ring," said Thel. John nodded.

Suddenly, the walls beside them started exploding. They ran for the doorway, and stopped only to fight a few Flood forms along the way. They were easily dealt with though, as the Chief snapped up his SACW-AR and fired a few shots, blasting the forms away.

The two hurried outside where they saw a piece of collapsed ice forming a path up the mountain side.

Thel pointed at it.

"Even in death, your Sergeant guides us all," he spoke. Cortana suddenly had an epiphany as the two dealt with some hostile Sentinels and Flood forms.

"The _Dawn_... of course - the Frigate! We still have a chance!" she said, excitement in her voice.

The two rushed up the ice path and along the mountainside as more Flood forms closed in around them. They were easily beaten away, and the remnants were left for the Sentinels to clean up.

"Find the doorway in the cliffs, Chief. The _Dawn_ is on the other side," said Cortana. A waypoint was put onto a door only about 30 meters in front of the two.

The pair ran inside the room, finding an ongoing battle between Flood and Sentinels. It suddenly became a free-for-all, as the Arbiter and the Chief hurried through the battle to get out.

The Gravemind spoke, sounding sad and defeated. He knew that there was no escape, but he knew that the Flood would return in time.

"**Resignation is my virtue. Like water I ebb and flow. Defeat is simply the addition of time to a sentence I never deserved... but **_**you**_ **imposed**."

The Chief fired at a couple more Flood forms, easily killing them with precise shots from his AR.

"Don't let this ring be the end of us, Chief." said Cortana.

The pair made it back outside. The sky of Halo had turned a red and orange color, and distant explosions could be heard.

"There! Johnson's Warthog," said Cortana. They ran over to it. The vehicle detected their presence and armor slid back, allowing the Chief and Arbiter to enter. When they were both inside, the plating slid back into place.

The Master Chief took the, wheel, and a multitude of sensors on the exterior turned on as holographs turned on. Outside sensor data was fed right to the Chief's head.

The Arbiter took position in the center of the vehicle. A viewfinder and optical scope came down, and Thel grabbed the handles to control the outer turret. He sat in a swiveling seat that, combined with an outward camera and sensors, allowed 360 degree view.

The Chief turned the vehicle on, and it's anti-gravity engines kicked into life. He revved the engine, and the Warthog rumbled forward.

"Come on, Spartan - go, go, _go!_"

The Spartan hit the accelerator, and the Warthog took off. They rounded a corner, and the gyro-stabilizers inside kept the 'Hog from rolling over.

As they reached an open area, a massive explosion erupted alongside them.

"Drive, Chief. Head for the Frigate," said Cortana. The Chief could see the kilometer long ship in the distance on the other side of a large mountain.

He throttle the accelerator, and the Warthog sped forward. It's engine kicked into a higher gear, feeding more power to the anti-gravity engines.

120 kph… 160 kph… 200 kph.

"Come on! Faster!" said Cortana.

The Warthog went off a twisted piece of metal, which had formed into a ramp. The 'Hog landed on a large open structure, and bobbed and weaved around falling debris. The Chief maneuvered around corners, and the Arbiter fired the HMG at Flood and Sentinels alike.

"The _Dawn_ is close. We _can_ make it! As long as the ground doesn't fall underneath us..."

They sped off another ramp, and soon entered a large hallway with multiple ramps and walkways. Small fights between Flood and Sentinels were everywhere, and the Chief ran over several smaller Flood while blasts from the HMG tore apart Sentinels.

"The charging sequence... it's too much for the ring to take!"

The Warthog went off another ramp as more explosions went off behind them, taking out the Flood and Sentinels that had stayed behind. Large pillars started falling, crushing everything beneath them and sending giant chunks of metal in multiple directions.

The Chief maneuvered around corners and bends as gigantic plates of metal were sent up into the air. They landed on another open structure, and the fight between Flood and Sentinels continued. Infection forms were squashed by the energies of the anti-grav engines, and small arms fire from Combat forms pinged off the energy shielding and plating of the Warthog.

"Halo is ripping itself apart!"

The went off another ramp and came out onto a large, open stretch.

"Hurry Chief! Don't stop!" yelled Cortana. The Arbiter continue firing at the Sentinels, destroying them with one or two shots. The Warthog hurtled forward, running over everything in it's path.

"Charging sequence at 30%..." warned Cortana.

They jumped onto another large platform, where dozens of Pure forms were waiting for them. The Arbiter did his best to keep them away from the Warthog, and the Chief ran down those that didn't move. A Tank form was shoved out of the way and smashed apart by the full force of the Warthog.

They rounded a corner, and the Arbiter fired at the ground where hundreds of Infection forms were scuttling around. Many were crushed by the Warthog, and they went off another ramp.

"50%, Chief!"

Dozens of Sentinels arrived and started firing their energy beams at the speeding Warthog. The 'Hog had reached speeds of nearly 240 kph, and entered another hallway with ramps. The fights between Sentinels and the Flood were very large here, and the Chief had to swerve out of the way to make sure that he didn't get hit by any of the Pure forms.

"70%!"

The Chief entered the middle ramp, and went under the rest of the hallway. They came up to another ramp, and jumped off as a massive explosion went off right underneath the Warthog. They landed on an open area where they could see the Frigate in the distance.

Large explosions sent giant pieces of metal up into the air, and the Chief did his best to move out of the way of open areas on the ground. The metal went hurtling into the sky, and large pillars in the distance started falling, knocking more pieces down into the abyss below.

"80% charged!"

They rounded the final bend, where dozens of Sentinels were waiting for them. Beams laced across the shielding of the Warthog, quickly draining it. A large pillar behind the Sentinels fell and destroyed half of their number while also sending metal plating high into the sky.

"90% - firing sequence initiated!" said Cortana, desperate to escape.

Finally, John and the Arbiter made it to the final stretch to the _Forward Unto Dawn_. The cargo doors were open and waiting for them, but there was a problem. RIght in front of them was a 70 meter gap between the edge of the structure and the cargo bay.

"_Gun it_, Chief! Jump! _Floor it_! Right into the hangar!" yelled Cortana.

John slammed his foot down onto the accelerator pedal, causing the Warthog to shoot forward. Cortana diverted energy from non-critical systems to the engines. The Warthog's engine started redlining as they reached nearly 280 kph.

They hit the ramp, and sailed through the air. They landed in the cargo bay, but the Warthog tumbled and rolled as it crashed into the hangar of the _Dawn_. The armor plating slid back, allowing the Chief and the Arbiter out as they recovered. Suddenly, the Dawn shifted, causing one of the Scorpion tanks to slide towards the Arbiter. He ran backwards and took cover behind a large pile of crates, and the tank plowed into them. The Chief leapt over the Warthog, hesitating. He was relieved when he saw the Arbiter dig himself out. They nodded at each other, and the Arbiter rushed to the bridge.

John ran to the hangar panel and plugged in Cortana, who took control of the Frigate. Her image appeared on the holotank in front of John.

"Hang on!" she said.

Cortana ignited the thrusters at full burn and launched the Dawn at full speed. John grabbed onto the terminal, hanging on for dear life as the Dawn left Halo's atmosphere. As John tried to stay anchored, the Warthog flew out, striking John on its way through the open hanger doors and out into empty space. John flew off the panel, then glided down the floor towards the doors, while a self-destructing Halo looming in the background. John punched his fist hard into the floor to get a grip, and halted near the back end of the hangar. Cortana reached out her arm towards him, scared of losing him.

"Chief!" she yelled.

The Scorpion flew out towards John. He ducked his head just in time as it went over him, narrowly missing John but smashing the floor behind him and falling back towards Halo. John began to climb back up to Cortana, finally making it back to the Holotank. Meanwhile, the Arbiter made it to the bridge and sat down at the controls. John braced himself behind the panel, and plugged Cortana back into his helmet.

"If we don't make it..." started Cortana.

"We'll make it," replied the Chief, determination in his voice.

"It's been an honor serving with you, _John_."

John simply rested his head back against the holotank, exhausted. Halo exploded in the background, engulfing the Hangar in a blinding, white light. That was the last thing that John ever saw of his home galaxy for a long, long time.

* * *

Back on Earth, marines gathered on a hillside near the Gateway that led to the Ark, which had been shut down. Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood removed his hat, and began his speech.

"For us, the storm has passed. The war is over. But let us never forget those who journeyed into the howling dark and did not return. For their decision required courage beyond measure..."

The Arbiter, present at the speech, remembered how he got back. _The front part of the Forward Unto Dawn entered the Earth's atmosphere, where it then crashed into the Indian Ocean._

"...sacrifice, and unshakable conviction that their fight, our fight, was elsewhere."

His memory continued. _An engineering crew cut into the Dawn's hull with plasma torches. He remembered waking up to the smell of saltwater, and the bright light of the Earth's sun touching his skin. He stood up from the wreckage, and looked out to the day ahead._

He now stood solemnly with the marines, watching and listening to Hood's speech.

"As we start to rebuild, this hillside will remain barren, a memorial to heroes fallen. They ennobled all of us, and they shall not be forgotten," finished Hood. He put his hat back on, and saluted. Sergeant Pete Stacker turned to the marines present.

"Present arms!" he yelled.

Seven marines raised their Battle Rifles, and each fired a single burst: a three-volley salute to those that had fought for not just their lives, but for their friends, their family, their species.

The Arbiter raised his arm to his chest in the customary Sangheili salute to honor the fallen of both species.

The marines soon left, leaving the Arbiter and Hood alone on the hillside. They stood alone at the memorial: a Pelican wing, decorated with the pictures of those who had fallen in combat. Thel was not surprised to see Commander Keyes and Sergeant Johnson on there.

"I remember how this war started. What your kind did to mine. I can't forgive you. But..." started Hood.

He held out his hand to the Arbiter.

"You have my thanks. For standing by him to the end."

The Arbiter grasped Hood's smaller hand in his larger one, and they shook hands. They let go, and Hood's eyes were drawn to the memorial.

"Hard to believe he's dead."

The Arbiter looked towards the _Shadow of Intent_, hovering quietly in the sky.

"Were it so easy," he said.

A pelican came in, and Hood left the memorial. The Arbiter's personal phantom arrived in the background, and Thel started to walk towards it. He stopped, however, and turned around. He walked back to it, and gave it a closer look. At the top was a battle poem; a good one at that:

"_Oh, death was never an enemy of ours!_

_We laughed, knowing better men would come, and greater wars:_

_When each proud fighter brags_

_He wars on death, for lives: not men, for flags."_

Looking over the memorial, realized something was missing, and picked a rock off the ground. He spent a minute carving something into the Pelican wing, and then walked back towards the Phantom. It took off back to the _Shadow of Intent_.

Inside, Thel found Rtas 'Vadum looking at a holographic image of Earth.

"Things look different. Without the Prophets' lies clouding my vision. I would like to see our own world - to know that it is safe," said Rtas.

"Fear not. For we have made it so," replied Thel. He clenched his fist to his chest.

"By your word, Arbiter." Rtas repeated the gesture.

Thel took a seat on the command chair, the one that Rtas usually resided in.

"Take us home."

The _Shadow of Intent_ left Earth, and went to rejoin the remnants of the Covenant Separatist and Human fleet in space. Back on the memorial, underneath the print of "UNSCDF March 3, 2553", was the number "117" carved into the memorial. It was the tribute to the man who had saved the entire galaxy from the Flood, the man who saved countless billions of lives in the War, and the man whose destiny and legacy was not yet completed. Many thought him dead.

They couldn't have been more wrong.

* * *

"Chief? Can you hear me?"

John, who was very much alive, awoke, floating in zero-gravity. He was in a hallway filled with debris in the _Dawn_. He turned on the flashlights on his helmet, illuminating the hallway in bright, white light.

"I thought I'd lost you, too," said Cortana, relief in her voice.

John looked at a gaping hole in the hallway. He drifted to his SACW-AR and holstered it, then began to drift to the end of the hallway.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I'm not sure. When Halo fired, it shook itself to pieces. Did a number on the Ark. The Portal couldn't sustain itself. We made it through just as it collapsed," replied Cortana.

John reached the end of the hallway, which opened up into empty space. The stars twinkled in the background, and John saw what happened:

The entire ship was sheared in half. It was currently floating in a cloud of it's own debris, and the edges were still glowing hot from the sudden slowdown from Slipspace.

"Well... some of us made it."

The remaining half of the _Dawn_ continued to aimlessly drift through unknown space.

John turned around and floated back through the hallway. He drifted further inside the ship, until he eventually came to the cryo-room. He entered, and found a row of cryotubes still intact. In the center of the room was a holotank.

"But you did it. Truth and the Covenant, the Flood..." she started.

John reached behind his head and pulled out Cortana's chip before sliding into the holotank, appearing on top.

"It's finished," she ended.

John turned off the flashlight on his helmet.

"It's finished," he confirmed.

He folded up his AR into his suit and drifted over to one of the empty cryotubes.

"I'll drop a beacon. But it'll be a while before anyone finds us," said Cortana.

John climbed into one of the cryotubes.

"Years, even," she continued.

The cryotube door began to close. John sent a signal to his suit and armor to power down and begin long-term hibernation. His eyelids felt heavy as exhaustion started to creep to him. The reactor powered down, shutting down all functions for the armor. The suit started to halt all but the most basic functions for him.

"I'll miss you," said Cortana.

"Wake me, when you need me," replied the Chief.

Cortana looked at her knight in shining armor and nodded. The cryotube sealed, freezing John and sending him into a deep slumber.

Cortana powered herself down too, and set several subroutines to alert her should anything come up. And for several years, all was quiet in the _Dawn_.

* * *

The back half of the _Dawn _drifted for an unknown amount of time, going past alien galaxies and stars, planets and moons. For years it floated through space, getting further and further away from the Milky Way.

For years, nothing disturbed Cortana and the slumbering giant held inside the half-ship. What Cortana didn't know was that the Portal collapsed for the entrance to Earth. But before it closed permanently, the Portal shifted to another galaxy.

A galaxy fighting a losing war against the dead. A galaxy that was running out of time before the worst evil imaginable would come back. A galaxy that needed a hero.

The stars twinkled bright that night on Shuggazoom. As the citizens and the Monkey Team looked up at the night sky, they remembered what they were fighting for.

Fate was merciful that night as everyone slumbered.

For a lone warrior and his companion would arrive soon, with one mission.

Finish the fight.

**Aaaaaaand that's a wrap for chapter 2! I hope you liked it! Please review and tell me what you think! For those who are wondering, the poem in the chapter is called "The Next War" by Wilfred Owen. If you are confused by anything, review or PM me and I'll help you understand it. I'm not sure when the next chapter is going to be out, as I haven't fully planned it out and I am going to be busy for a while. I'll do my best and write when I can, though. See you guys next time!**

**Planeswalker117**


	4. Chapter 3: The City

**AN: Sorry I took so long to work on this chapter. I haven't written scenes like the ones in this chapter (apart from the one with the Chief), and I don't really know how they turned out. Please let me know what I should do differently if you didn't fully like them. Also, I am thinking about adding some robot monkey OC's, but I don't really have the team and/or patience to create them. I am looking for around 2-5 OC's. If you want to send some suggestions or have any, (I'm looking at you denizens of deviantArt), PM me with them and I'll do my best to add them into the story. **

**Also, if you are wondering why the UNSC is losing to the Covenant when they have highly advanced technology, it's because the UNSC just doesn't have the large production capabilities of the Covenant. So while they do win and often, the Covenant just drowns them in sheer numbers. Enjoy!**

**SRMTHFG! belongs to Disney. Halo belongs to Microsoft.**

* * *

The wake-up alarm strobed softly in the morning, waking up the Monkey Team one-by-one. As usual, Antauri was the first one up. He didn't really "wake up" so much as he booted back up, his robot form preventing the need for sleep. His mind went out to the rest of the team; they were exhausted from the fight yesterday, when one of the reborn Skeleton Kings' monsters attempted to ravage the city, while also being supported by dozens of undead formless. The robot was able to take on and destroy the monster while Jinmay and their other allies took care of the undead formless.

He got up from his bed and walked through the door, thinking about what needed to be done today. The robot had to be repaired; it had taken some damage from the fight yesterday, and it's weapons also needed to be reloaded. The team needed to clean up and also take care of any minor injuries that they had sustained. The biggest ones were taken care of yesterday by Gibson, such as Sprx's broken tibia (of which Nova had a small fit about when he refused to immediately get it fixed), or Otto's fractured ribs. Even Gibson lost a hand (again), and Chiro got a concussion from hitting his head hard against the inside of the Torso tank. Antauri only suffered a slight dent in his metal armor.

He looked around from his sleeping tube, only to see the rest of the monkey's starting to wake up. He smiled and went to the kitchen, where he began to make breakfast. It would be a quick and easy one, as he didn't know when exactly the Skeleton King would attack again. It would have to be food that they would quickly digest, just in case.

He pulled some eggs out of a carton from the fridge, and set about scrambling them. He was in the middle of stirring them up with a whisk when Chiro, who was usually a late sleeper walked in. He was rubbing the last bit of sleep from his eyes, and was still wearing his hyperforce uniform.

What was unusual this morning was just how _tired_ Chiro looked. There were bags underneath his eyes, and he immediately sat down at the table. What startled Antauri was just how little light seemed to be in Chiro's eyes. They were usually vibrant and full of life, but now they were beginning to dull. The 15-year old had seen much in his life, and some of it was enough to drive others crazy.

"Chiro, are you okay?" he asked. He knew Chiro wasn't; he just wanted to make sure that _Chiro_ knew he was.

Chiro looked up at his mentor. He looked confused.

_He might not have even understood what I said_, thought Antauri.

"Whaa.." he asked, the weariness apparent in his voice. Antauri chuckled.

"Chiro, you should go get some more sleep," suggested Antauri, a stern look on his face, like one a father would give his child when he needed to do something. Chiro was their leader, and if the leader wasn't fit for duty, then the team itself wasn't either. Chiro sighed. He had been worrying about the war all night, and what would happen if they didn't win.

"I don't know Antauri. I… I just… I can't stop thinking about what might happen if we don't win this war. Even though we have allies and help from the GDF, I just don't know if we can pull through. I mean, it's not just here that the Skeleton King is attacking. He's going after every inhabited world in the galaxy. What if we fail to stop him? What will happen to Shuggazoom? To the galaxy? To us?" he asked.

Antauri nodded in understanding as he continued to scramble the eggs. They were close to being done; about 30 seconds.

"I understand your fears Chiro, but you must not let them take a hold of you. That is what the Skeleton King really wants: your fear to make you helpless and believe that you can't win. You just have to believe that we can win this Chiro, and we will," said Antauri. His wisdom once again helped to assert the fears of his leader, and help him belive and have faith in the team.

"You're right, Antauri. Thanks," Chiro said, a smile on his face. He yawned, and stood up from the table.

"I'm going to try to get some more sleep. You'll let me know if something comes up, right?" asked Chiro.

Antauri smiled.

"I will. I'll let the team know that you are still tired from the fight yesterday, okay?" he said.

Chiro nodded, and left the room. The door opened and closed behind him, and Antauri turned back to the eggs.

Right as he turned off the stove, Otto came in. His tail drooped behind him, slightly dragging along the ground. Antauri could sense his exhaustion, but it was no where as bad as Chiro's.

"Good morning Otto," welcomed Antauri.

Otto yawned and scratched his cheek. He sniffed around, before finally settling his eyes on the pan that Antauri was taking off the stove. It smelled delicious, and he wanted a taste.

"Morning 'Tauri," said Otto. "Watcha cooking there?" he asked.

Antauri brought the pan over to the counter and grabbed several plates. He handed them to Otto who started setting them around the table.

"Eggs," he curtly replied. He grabbed several utensils from the drawers and spread them around the table.

The door opened again and in walked Nova and Sprx, both of which were conversing about the fight yesterday.

"...and did you see how I pulverized took out all the nuts and bolts of that one robot? Man, it was awesome to see him just fall apart!" said Sprx to an annoyed-looking Nova.

"Yes Sprx, I saw that. I also saw how you got thrown several city blocks by a Skeleton Robot. I also saw you unflatteringly plastered against the wall," retorted Nova.

Sprx grinned sheepishly. Although she couldn't see it, Sprx internally sighed in defeat.

"You know, I was trying to protect you…," muttered Sprx under his breath, his eyes turning somewhat sad. Nova turned to him, a confused look on her face.

"Hmm?" she pondered to Sprx. Even though she didn't say a word, Sprx knew she was asking if he said something.

"Nothing. Just me thinking of stuff," he said. Nova shrugged and move to the table. Sprx turned around behind her and sighed.

_I wonder if I'll ever get the chance to say it_, he thought. He shook it from his head.

_There are more important things to deal with right now._

A loud growl filled the kitchen, causing all the heads to turn to Sprx as he blushed.

_Like an empty stomach_, he thought.

"Sorry," he apologized as he sat down at the table. The door opened again as Gibson walked in. He was fiddling with a tube of some pink, bubbling liquid, and didn't even notice when he was welcomed by Antauri.

Everyone sat down at the table and began eating their food. It was all peace and quiet until Sprx noticed something.

"Hey, where's the kid?" he asked, looking at Antauri. Chiro should have been out here by now. He usually woke up right after Antauri, and helped him with making breakfast. If he wasn't here, then something was wrong.

"He was quite tired when he came. Apparently he didn't get much sleep last night, so I let him get some more," replied Antauri as he watched the others dig into their eggs.

"I see," said Sprx. The rest of breakfast passed in silence or what needed to be done today.

They all cleaned up their dishes and utensils and then went about their respective duties. Otto and Sprx went to work repairing the Robot, while Antauri and Nova replenished missiles and ammunition. Gibson was repairing the undead weapons and creating new ammo for them.

Their morning was suddenly interrupted by the glaring alarm that announced another incursion attempt into the city. And it was right at the time of another attempt by GDF fleets to breakthrough the blockade of the planet and evacuate the citizens.

Everyone, including Chiro, rushed to the control room. The giant screen inside showed an impossibly large amount of Skeleton King forces converging on the city. While the team had seen very large Skeleton King forces, they had never seen one this large.

"The civilians will be slaughtered if we don't get there and help them out,' said Chiro, rubbing sleep from his eyes. He turned to look at Otto and Gibson.

"Are the undead weapons ready?" he asked.

"Yep. They're all loaded and ready to go. I made some new power cells that are about five times longer-lasting than the older ones," said Gibson.

"Good. We'll need them. Monkeys, mobilize!" yelled Chiro.

The team ran to their respective tubes, the undead weapons waiting patiently inside. They picked them up and exited the Super Robot, ready to defend their home.

But as they exited out into the city, the Super Robot suddenly picked up a signal. It wasn't far; in fact it was coming from outside the atmosphere of the planet. It was from an unidentified ship that had run into the Skeleton King's blockade of the planet. Even if they had heard the distress signal, they would've had to wait before they could get to it.

If they did hear it, they wouldn't be surprised that it was a distress signal. They got plenty of those. But they would be surprised to hear the contents of the message. It was on an endless loop, desperately reaching out for help that would never come. The Hyperforce had been battered and beaten in this long and somewhat bloody war. But little did they know that their salvation was at hand. All they had to do was believe.

"_Mayday, mayday mayday. This is UNSC FFG-201 Forward Unto Dawn requesting immediate evac. Survivors aboard. Prioritization code Victor zero five dash three dash Sierra one one seven_… "

* * *

A million miles from Shuggazoom, a wrecked star ship floated. Several parts of the ship floated next to it in a tight group, and they all tumbled through space together. It had been four years after the event that put the ship into this state, four years after the collapse of the portal that led to the Ark.

A large, purple scan line ran through the length of the ship, which scrambled some of the electronic parts that were still functioning.

A distress signal was heard running through the ship:

"Mayday, mayday mayday. This is UNSC FFG-201 _Forward Unto Dawn_ requesting immediate evac. Survivors aboard. Prioritization code Victor zero five dash three dash Sierra one one seven."

While this half of the ship was not known to this galaxy, it was carrying something inside that could turn the tide of any war, something that was the fear of entire armies. Something that held the very universe on it's shoulders. The ship shook, and pieces inside that were not properly connected with the ship were torn off.

Inside the cryoroom of the _Dawn_, a glowing blue light was on top of the holotank in the center of the room. The blue light turned out to be a sphere, the only source of light for the room. The ship shook again, and the sphere disappeared. In it's place was a female figure, sitting down.

Cortana stood up and gasped, looking around. Not in the physical realm, but that of the electronic. Numerous warnings reached her as the ship shook and rumbled again. She activated a hologram in front of her, the words "UNSC" on the top left corner. She moved things around on the hologram, looking at hundreds of pieces of information. She began searching desperately for something, shaking her head. She was scared, and didn't know what to do. Eventually, she got to a status report of the ship. Red circles outlined different areas of the ship, and each of them were hull breaches.

Problem was, those hull breaches weren't there when the _Dawn_ first started drifting.

There were five of those red circles, each of which meant some unknown entity was trying to get inside the ship.

She moved that holographic panel to the side and brought up another one. It was the cryostasis control panel, and it showed the green armor of a sleeping giant resting within one of the cryotubes. After some consideration, Cortana pressed a command on the panel:

REACTIVATE

A status update appeared with the word "ACTIVE" in red. Cortana closed her eyes, and turned to stare at the cryotube that held the champion of Humanity.

"Wake up, John. I need you," said the A.I.

The frost that covered the glass of the cryotube thawed away, revealing the green helmet with golden eye slit.

_Thoughts and memories swam around his head as he floated in the darkness of his mind. There were things that he saw that he had never seen before: fleets of millions trading blows that would crack planets. Orbital defenses firing weapons that tore into enemy ships, leaving nothing behind but still-cooling debris. The planet below had deep pock marks on it from starship weapons, and he could see lights and explosions on the planet. Soldiers from two very different and similar races fought against each other, both sides using weapons that could could easily take down UNSC starships. John realized what is was: it was the final battle between Humans and Forerunners. Ancient Humanity was making it's last stand against the Forerunners here, on Charum Hakkor, if he remembered correctly. Every second, dozens of troops died. Vehicles fired weapons that tore into each others ranks, and fighter aircraft from both sides dogfighted up in the atmosphere._

"_They were never supposed to attain the Mantle," said a deep voice._

_The view soon changed to Forerunner ships fighting corrupted ones. Star systems were destroyed in order to contain the Flood, but they kept on coming. The Gravemind was all powerful, all-knowing: it could never be defeated. Thousands upon tens of thousands of ships were destroyed by Star Roads, and the Flood ravaged all life they found. Weapons fire from 150 kilometer long starships vaporized armor, while civilian ships were flung through space to try and corrupt even more warships._

"_You, however, were," continued the voice._

_A massive fleet of ships, millions in number, went up against an even greater number of infected warships. Mendicant Bias versus Offensive Bias. Brother versus Brother. But it was really just a feint for what was really happening:_

_A figure strode through the halls of the Ark, the massive Forerunner construct outside the galaxy. His cloak flowed behind him, and the holographic images of the Halo rings hovered above him._

"_Wake up John."_

_The figure moved towards a platform at the end of the long hallway. He walked across the lightbridge to the platform and stared out the window to the galaxy in the background. Even though he wasn't there, he could hear the screams of the dead and dying coming from the console._

_The figure reached up and took off it's helmet, revealing it to be a Forerunner. He placed it aside and rested his hands on the control panel in front of him. _

"_The Mantle of Responsibility was destined to go to Humanity. But the Forerunners imposed. What was supposed to be a burden carried by an entire species must now rest on the shoulders of one."_

"_Wake up John!"_

"_The Forerunners never understood it's true meaning. They never understood that sacrifice was necessary to survive. But you do. And now, the Mantle of Responsibility rests in your hands, John. Should you survive this test, come find me in the remains of the Andromeda galaxy. I'll be waiting."_

"_Wake up John!"_

He opened his eyes for the first time in several years. His nanosuit immediately began running diagnostics on him and itself as it booted up. His major organs were all perfectly healthy, and aside from the third-degree burns on his chest that hadn't been healed, he was ready for combat. What he did notice, however, was that he seemed to have gotten taller.

"Ungh…" groaned the Master Chief as his senses came back to him. He could feel as each part of his body woke up after being asleep for a while.

"Chief! Easy. You've been out for a while," said Cortana.

"Where are we?" he asked.

"Still adrift on the _Dawn_," replied Cortana. She turned to the holographic panel and went through several pages of information.

"Why did you wake me?"

"Hang on. Bringing your systems online now."

John's HUD appeared on the inside of his helmet as his armor was powered up. He noticed that some of it had changed. It seemed a bit bulkier though. Looking down, he saw why. He had grown nearly a foot taller. Where he used to be around 2.5 meters tall, he was now around 2.75, and his armor had to be heightened to accommodate the sudden growth.

_Is this one of those gifts the Librarian talked about?_ he wondered.

"I noticed your growth, and I think it had to do with some unusual bio-signs I was getting from you while in cryosleep. I rewrote the firmware for your suit and armor while you were out. I also did some upgrades for the armor to accommodate your growth spurt. Do you have any idea of what caused it?" asked Cortana.

He looked down at his modified armor. The chest piece was the same, but his shoulder pauldrons were larger. His forearm gauntlets had been modified, as they were sleeker and more angular. There was joint protection for each of his fingers, and the armor for his feet was more plated and centered. His shin guards had also been redesigned, with a little less plating around them as he stretched the bodysuit.

He chuckled.

"I'll tell you later. It looks like you've been busy," he said, dodging the question. Cortana grinned, and spun off a subroutine to ask the Chief at a later date about his bio-signs.

"Activating the ship's gravity generators," said Cortana.

He watched from behind the cryo-tube as debris, weapons, and drifting crates fell to the floor.

The ship's system spoke.

"Partial system restoration. Initializing system diagnostics."

The Master Chief looked over the readouts for his armor. The chest plating had been somewhat repaired, but it still had a burn mark from Spark's energy beam. His energy shield generators were operating at peak capacity, and his suit told him that he was ready for combat.

"Chief, look up. You need to pull the manual release," said Cortana.

He looked up and pulled the lever. The cryo-tube opened and John stepped out, for the first time in four years. He quickly adjusted to his newfound height, and strode over to Cortana. He truly was a giant. Humans were, on average, 2.2 meters tall. The SPARTAN-II program made John and the others nearly 2.5 meters tall. But now, nearly three meters tall, the Chief towered over everything.

_What could have done this to him?_ wondered Cortana. She would've pressed more if there was more time, but they needed to find out what was going on with the ship.

"Seems like old times," commented Cortana.

"Ready to get back to work?" asked the Chief.

Cortana crossed her arms.

"I thought you'd never ask."

John pulled Cortana's data chip out from the holotank and inserted it into the back of his helmet. Once again, he felt the cool liquid presence enter his head. He pulled out his SACW-AR, now modified to fit his new size, and began walking out of the Cryo Bay.

"We've got intrusion alerts lighting up on multiple decks. Our best bet to figure out who's boarding us is the observation deck - four floors up," said Cortana.

"Could it be a rescue team?"

The ship shook violently as a large rumbling noise was heard.

"I wouldn't bet on it."

John entered a room with a holotable displaying a hologram of the remnants of the _Forward Unto Dawn_. He walked up to the terminal in front of it and pressed the button.

"Weapon systems online. Gravity controls online. Ship propulsion offline," said the system.

"Cortana, do you have any visuals on the intruders?" asked the Chief. Getting a look at what they were or where they were located would reveal a large amount of information.

"Negative, all cameras were shut down by an extremely intensive scan. We're going in blind," replied Cortana.

Unfortunate, but that was usually how the Chief went in. Little to no information on enemy composition or location, only that he should expect anything.

He maneuvered down several hallways through the _Dawn_, a thought plaguing his mind.

"How long was I out?" he asked Cortana.

"Four years, seven months, ten days," she replied.

_Four years? Where are we if it takes that long to find us?_ he wondered.

"Somebody should have found us by now."

John entered a circular room with a doorway in the back. In the center was a console displaying a holographic representation of the _Dawn_'s predicted drift course. It showed the ship being pulled towards a red icon. As he walked in the room, a large, purple wave of energy scanned through the ship producing a loud screeching noise and disrupting electronics.

"What's that?" asked John, concern in his voice. His suit didn't get disrupted, but the console fizzled out and lines of code ran down various screens in the room.

"High intensity sensor scan. It doesn't match any known patterns," replied Cortana.

"How close are we to the observation deck?"

"It's directly above us."

The cyborg left the circular room and went through the door at the back. It lead into another room, this time rectangular, with an elevator.

"The elevator doors look sealed tight," said Cortana.

John approached the elevator doors and began to pry them open.

"Chief, be careful!" warned Cortana.

John threw open the elevator doors, only to find that the shaft had been depressurized. A few crates tumbled past, but not before hitting John and knocking him into the elevator shaft. He quickly activated his thrusters and grabbed onto a ledge on the side of the shaft, watching as debris fell past him.

"Some areas might have lost pressure!" alerted Cortana.

"Right."

John climbed up several meters, aided by his thruster pack. Debris fell from the top of the shaft and he looked to his left.

"Chief, watch out!"

He jumped to the left, avoiding the falling debris.

"I didn't realize the ship had deteriorated so badly," said Cortana. John grunted in agreement. He activated his thruster pack again and jetted to the top of the elevator shaft. He avoided the other falling debris, and grabbed the ledge for the next level at the top of the shaft.

He pulled himself, having to duck under the top part of the door because of his size.

As soon as he stepped into the opening, however, a creature as large as him came through the smoke. It was a large, bulky, white robot, with a red skull on a screen in the center of it's chest. It had no head, but it did have two robotic tentacles on the top of it's body, and had large cannons for hands. It's legs were slightly flimsy, and it had claws for feet. A blue, shimmering energy sword came out of it's right arm as the robot advanced. It swung at the Master Chief, who grabbed the cannon in his left hand. He punched his right fist into the chest, fired his arm cannon into it's insides, pulled his arm back out, grabbed it's other arm, and threw it into the opening and down the elevator shaft. The elevator door closed and locked.

"Cortana, what was that?" asked John. He made sure his suit got a close look at it so it could later identify weak spots that he could exploit.

"Unknown robotic form, but quite strong. Those arms were similar to Hunter assault cannons, and had a plethora of weapons within them. We should be careful. It's probably not alone," replied Cortana.

John continued onwards. He soon arrived at the Observation Deck after passing through several more halls. His armor's sensors picked up movement inside the room, and he activated a Stealth Drone. It slid out from his thigh plating and floated up to eye level. He activated it's cloak and commanded it out into the room. A small screen opened up inside his helmet as he remotely connected with the drone.

John couldn't be more gobsmacked at the sight of the aliens: more of those white robots, along with some new creatures. They seemed to be skeletal robots, with a computer module on the front of their chests. He maneuvered the drone around to get a better angle. The new robots had edged weapons on them, likely superheated to cut through hardened materials, and what looked like guns holstered over their backs. They were taking a lot of cargo from the room, stacking it on boxes and loading it onto ships.

That was a direct violation of the Cole Protocol, and he couldn't allow them to get those supplies. He scanned over the group again, before centering on a small creature at the console in the center of the room. It looked about four feet tall, and seemed to be covered in black and white bony armor, with an orange tail and a claw for its left hand.

But the strangest thing was what the small creature was talking to. It looked like the Skeleton Robots, but larger, with a wicked looking staff in it's right hand. A helmet with spikes was adorned on its head, and a black cloak flowed behind it. They were communicating about something, but the Chief couldn't understand what.

"Cortana, can you translate what they're saying?" he asked.

"There are a lot of similarities between that language and many Earth-based languages, but not one that can be directly translated. I'll start to work on some translation software. In the mean time, why don't we show them what we do with intruders?" she asked in return.

The Chief grinned, his loadout changing to anti-armor capabilities, a plan forming in his head.

* * *

"Mandarin, what have you found from this piece of scrap called a ship?" asked the Skeleton King. He was curious about the origins of the ship and if it carried anything that could help him rid the universe of the Hyperforce once and for all.

"We have found much, my lord. This ship is stocked with weapons that we could use to eliminate the Hyperforce, and could even help us spread our evil to the furthest reaches of the universe," replied the former Hyperforce member.

"Help _me_, Mandarin. Help me spread _my _evil. When you return back to the surface rep-" started the Skeleton King, before he was rudely interrupted by Mandarin being thrown across the room from some unknown force.

He turned to see what could have done that, only to see one of the most dangerous looking beings in the universe.

It was covered from head-to-toe in green and black armor, a golden eye slit right where the eyes would be. It was easily nine feet tall, and carried a menacing-looking weapon with a still-smoking barrel. The gun itself was red and blue, and what looked like power lines pulsed along its sides. It looked like the being could take on everything that he could throw at it and win.

That would be the last he saw of the creature for a while as it raised it's weapon and fired at the hologram-bone.

* * *

The Master Chief shifted his gaze to one of the white robots and fired. M/AM rounds pierced through the metal, detonating inside. Amazingly, the robot still stood, and fired it's cannons. Red laser beams impacted against his shielding, draining it slightly. He fired his weapon at it's limbs, taking them off with precise shots before sending another round through it's chest.

Several of the smaller Skeleton Robots rushed to his position with their edged weapons drawn while others took up firing positions behind cover.

John fired at the small mob in bursts, tearing through the metal and circuitry that they were composed of. He cut down several when the rest were upon him. Thankfully, the Skeleton Robots only came up to his chest, and he either punched them or whacked them with his rifle. They fell apart easily; augmented muscle enhanced by both nanosuit and power armor tore apart their metal limbs and bodies until the mob looked like it had gone through a trash compactor.

The ones with guns were easy enough to defeat; a couple bursts tore apart the crates the robots were using for cover, spilling out weapons, exoskeleton parts, and medical supplies. The robots were torn apart and melted by the sheer heat from the proximity detonations of the M/AM rounds.

One of the white robots, which he started calling Skeleton Droids, attempted to sneak up from behind. His motion tracker sensed it and alerted him. He spun around with inhuman speed, an EMP grenade in his hand. Against MJOLNIR armor, using any sort of electromagnetic weapon was useless, due to the nature of the material coating the armor. The armor and suit were impervious to EMP's, and could even use the energy of one to power other functions. Regular robots, however, were extremely vulnerable.

He primed the grenade as he punched it into the chest cavity of the Skeleton Droid. He kicked it away, leaving a massive dent in the armor of the droid, and damaging the electronics beneath.

It was forced several meters away, when the grenade went off. The electronics inside of the droid fizzled and electricity wracked its body as the EMP did it's work. The droid shut down from the power surge, smoke curling off its body.

A droid came from his front while another came from above him. He fired a few rounds at the droid in front of him with one arm while he raised the other one up into the air. Activating his energy sword, he stabbed the droid coming from above while finishing off the one in front of him. Reforming his Assault Rifle, he grabbed the writhing form of the droid above him and pulled, tearing the droid in half.

Chief had not forgotten about the small bony creature. It likely didn't know the layout of the ship, so he predicted that it was hiding somewhere in the Observation Deck. Well, two could play at that game.

He activated his thermal view and looked around. He had his suit filter out the smoking remnants of the robots, which left only a single entity hiding behind the raised dais of the Observation Deck.

He smirked, and activated his MML.

* * *

This was bad. This gigantic, green, _thing_, had destroyed all of his forces inside the room. Even the Skeleton Droids, capable of wiping the floor with the Monkey Team, were now left as smoldering heaps. But what shocked him most was the creature's speed. It could be nothing more than a robot, as there was no creature, human or alien, that could move that fast. Now it seemed to be looking for him. He couldn't fight it as he was: it's weapon had already severely wounded him.

His tail had been blown off, as well as his arm with the claw from it's gun. Large gashes spilled crimson blood down his side, with the left side of his face had been badly burned. His bone armor was cracked and chunks of it had fallen off, marring his coat of orange fur.

_Maybe I can still damage it to a certain amount_, he thought. Even if he defeated the creature, he was too badly wounded to return to the surface. He knew the Skeleton King could make more clones of him, and he made up his mind.

He summoned some of the dark power that his master had given him, and willed it into the shape of a sphere. He continued to funnel more and more power into the sphere, going so far as to put his life force into the sphere too. If any creature, even the Monkey Team, was hit by such a concentrated amount of dark power like this one, they would be either killed or turned to obey the power.

He leaned out of cover right as the creature looked at him. In a flash it snapped it's weapon. But it was too late, as Mandarin threw the sphere with precise aim. The creature fired it's weapon, tearing the monkey in half from the sheer kinetic force of the round. Blood and entrails spilled on the gunmetal black floor of the _Dawn_.

The sphere impacted the creature, detonating in a purple and black explosion. The creature was thrown against the wall, three meters behind it. Smoke curled up around it as Mandarin grinned a bloody grin.

Imagine his shock as he saw the creature rise up, a golden shimmer over it's form.

_Impossible! _was his last thought before his head and brains were splattered over the wall behind the translucent material behind him.

* * *

"_Warning: Unknown energy type detected. Shield capacity at 50 percent. Recommend caution_," droned the suit.

That impact _hurt_. That… monkey creature, for lack of a better name, had used some sort of high impulse energy weapon that had knocked him backwards and had drained half his shields. Granted, Covenant weapons could do that too, but they were usually mounted on tanks and other heavy vehicles.

At least the creature was dead now. While it may have powerful weapons, it's armor was laughable, and offered no protection to his high-powered M/AM rounds.

Everything on the Observation Deck, aside from him and Cortana, was dead. He looked around, making sure that nothing was left, and lowered his AR.

"That's the last of them. Find the override for the blast shields so we can see what we're up against," said Cortana.

John nodded, and walked up to the controls in the center of the room. He activated the override to the room, and the blast doors began to open.

"The good news is that those enemies seem to be rather limited in number and weapons strength. It is likely that we simply came across an unknown species' salvage ship or something," remarked Cortana.

The blast shields opened all the, and Cortana saw just how wrong she was. Outside the ship, an alien fleet consisting of nearly a dozen kilometer long ships made of some sort of white material were holding position in front of the _Dawn_. A large planet was in the background, with a very large city seen reaching out into space on one end. On the opposite side of the planet was a very large black castle of some sort that was also reaching out into space.

Suddenly, a pair of unknown alien fighter ships flew close to the Observation Deck and then flew off.

"...or we might have stumbled into an entire alien fleet," said Cortana.

"I don't think they recognize our ship," replied the Chief.

Two larger vessels, what looked like dropships, carrying some sort of smaller craft underneath, lowered into the view of the ship.

"You think?!" criticized Cortana.

The two vessels flew to both sides of the Observation Deck.

"Chief, I think those are landing craft!" yelled Cortana.

The landing craft broke the translucent material that composed the windows, and the Deck began to lose pressure. Several enemy robots boarded the ship.

"Warning. Atmosphere breach. Activating emergency barricades," said the _Dawn_'s system.

"_Warning: atmosphere loss. Activating internal oxygen supplies. Supply left: 3 years_," droned the Chief's suit.

John fired his AR at the robots boarding the ship. A pair of the larger white robots tried to flank the Chief, while forces from both landing craft approached on both sides.

Thinking quickly, the Chief accessed the ships' schematics. There was an armory only a floor below, where he could restock his weapons.

_Looks I can expend my ammo here and restock there_, thought the Chief.

Turning back the fight at hand, the Chief activated his cannon, IMP's and MML, and fired. A HEAT micro missile penetrated the armor covering one of the white robots and detonated, blowing it apart into thousands of small pieces. An FCM was fired from one of the IMP's at a group of charging of Skeleton Robots, and they deactivated as the electromagnetic pulse from the missile reached them. A TBX missile was fired into the midst of another group of Skeleton Robots, vaporizing them as the fuel-air mixture detonated. His arm cannon blew apart another Skeleton Droid, but more kept coming.

He fired his AR in his left arm while he fired his last micro missile into one of the landing craft. The missile tore through more robots before entering the back of the landing craft and detonating. The landing craft exploded, shattering more windows. Several robots were dragged out into space by the decompression of the room before the heavy blast doors closed, sealing the environment again.

John set his IMP's to independent firing mode while he focused on the larger white robots. These ones were larger than the previous Skeleton Droids, and had, if his scans confirmed it, more weapons.

One of the larger robots transformed it's hand into a giant magnet, and began to feed power into it. A large orb of energy began to appear in front of the weapon, and some stray pieces of metal were being drawn towards the magnet.

"_Warning: large magnetic containment field detected. Recommended course of action: disrupt containment field_," suggested the suit.

John complied, and fired his AR at the arm. The round tore off the arm at the elbow, and exploded. Part of the magnet and the chest cavity of the robot was melted by the heat of the explosion, and the magnetic containment imploded.

The implosion set off a miniature EMP that almost fully drained the Chief's shields. The other Skeleton Droid opened up it's chest to reveal an excessively large energy cannon. A blue glow surrounded the gun as it powered up.

The Master Chief dove out of the way as the energy cannon fired; a blue beam streaking across the room. The beam left a large burn mark on the _Dawn_'s internal armor. One of the IMP missiles took out a group of Skeleton Robots.

The two larger Skeleton Droids faced the Chief as he raised his arm cannon and fired at the one previously damage. To his surprise though, it raised up it's left arm and a shimmering purple shield appeared, blocking the shot.

He did notice that other lights on it seemed to dim, and it's movement slowed.

_They can change shield power levels, but the stronger they make the shield the more energy it consumes_, he figured. It was similar to his armor, but apparently his power plant was stronger.

He went into Spartan Time as the other droid fired several missiles from it's back. His extremely enhanced reflexes allowed him to simply step to the side and fire hes AR. He watched as the rounds and missiles both crawled through the air. If he wanted to, he could possibly pick the missile out of the air.

He focused back on the droids. Because they were robotic and not organic, they moved faster than other creatures. In Spartan Time they had decent speed, but they were still nowhere as fast as him. He jumped to the side, it seeming like he was crawling through thick molasses, as the damaged droid leapt at him.

He activated his energy blade and watched as it slowly took shape. It fully formed right as the damaged droid got within range of his blade, and he stabbed upwards as it continued past. It couldn't stop it's momentum, and the droid was sliced in half. Both pieces slowly fell to the ground.

The unharmed droid fired a laser weapon from both hands. The invisible weapons instantly hit the Spartan due to their speed, draining his shields by a quarter. Thankfully, they weren't the fastest firing weapons, and it was another five seconds in real time before the could be fired again. In Spartan Time however, that was closer to an eternity.

John lunged towards the droid, his blade out at the ready. The droid tried to move out of the way, but he was too fast in real time. The droids frame caved in as a full ton of condensed armor, muscle and flesh drove it to the ground. The Chief raised up his sword and thrust downward, impaling the droid.

It sputtered and died as his final IMP missile took out the last group of robotic hostiles.

Spartan Time faded away as the fired rounds and missiles hit the ground and wall, detonating and annihilating armor.

John looked around before settling on the alien ships.

"We need to get off this ship," he said.

"We've got bigger problems. We've got a ship on an intercept course. Head for the elevator banks, we can take those to the armory and stock up," replied Cortana.

John turned around and exited the Observation Deck. He made his way to the elevator, and rode one down to the armory. He remembered something that could help them out.

"Didn't the ship's sensors say we still had weapon systems online?"

"Yes, but the only weapons that I can remotely access are the point defenses, which won't help us a huge amount. Because the ship was torn in half, I can't access the larger weapon emplacement stations. The only other weapons are the missiles, but they would have to be manually fired from the outer hull. If the ship survives, it would be possible to rewire the weapon emplacements, but that would take some time to do," replied Cortana.

John mulled it over in his head as he exited the elevator.

"Activate the point defenses to take out any more incoming dropships. Are any of those enemy ships armed?" he asked.

"Scans I was able to get pointed at multiple weapon emplacements along their hulls, but I couldn't identify what they were exactly. By the way, the ship's sensors just declared that we are caught in that planet's gravity well. I predict that the enemy ship is going to take out our engines. If we don't have those online once we hit the gravity well, then we'll be torn apart on re-entry," replied Cortana.

John rounded the corner and arrived at the ship's armory. Inside were rows upon rows of weapons, missiles, micro missiles, parts for exo-skeletons, power packs for energy weapons, and more.

"Just to let you know, I took the liberty of transferring Johnson's M7 to the armory for repairs. It's all finished now, and you can retrieve it there," said Cortana. A waypoint appeared on John's HUD as he replenished his missile ammo.

"I was able to download the gun schematics into your armor, so you can add it to your SACW as the SACW-M7. I also was able to move the battery and replace the lining of the grips of the M7 to get power directly from your armor's reactor. It now has unlimited ammunition," said Cortana. Even though he couldn't see her, John could tell that she was grinning.

The Master Chief finished putting all his weapons and ammo together, and went over to the M7. He picked it up, and his suit and armor immediately recognized it. He disassembled it, and then walked out of the room.

"Time to get loud," said the Chief.

* * *

Back on Shuggazoom, the story was very different than the one up in space. To put it simply, things were not going well for the Hyperforce and their allies.

The city was in ruin, with repair drones desparately making attempts to bring it back. Thousands of citizens were injured, with several dozen dead. Thankfully, the final transports to take everyone off this planet had arrived, and the last citizens were loading on now. While the undead weapons had worked wonders again, there were just too many undead Skeleton Robots and Droids. They had quickly run out of ammo, and were forced into hand-to-hand combat.

The robot apes were out of commission, with multiple gashes on their armor that went deep inside. Mobius Quint's starfighter had crashed, and Olliana went to rescue him, while she had taken multiple slash wounds to the back and small grazes from Skeleton Robot firearms. Master Offay was still in the fight, but he sported couple of deep lacerations going from his chest to his belly button. They hadn't heard anything from the Sun Riders after they went on a goose chase for a giant formless monster. Jinmay was off taking care of several larger monsters, and was putting up a decent fight.

The Hyperforce had taken wounds too.

Chiro sported a large gash on his forehead, and blood trickled down his eyebrow. One of his vertebrae had been bruised when he was smashed against a wall, and his achilles' tendon had been torn. Multiple gashes ran through his armor and skin, and crimson blood trickled down his chest. Two of his ribs were cracked with another 3 broken, and there was a large purple and red bruise on his arm from where he had hit the ground hard.

Antauri's jetpack was ruptured, and hydraulic fluid trickled from dozens of cuts on his metal body. One of his optical lenses was cracked, the metal endoskeleton had taken some bruising, some of the plating on his right arm was destroyed, one of his metal toes had been crushed, and one of his antennae had been torn off. Sparks flew from where circuit lines had been breached in his helmet.

Sprx had a burn wound on his chest from one of the Skeleton Robots guns, and the fur around the wound was scorched and had burnt away. His clavicle was broken, his right arm was crushed by the foot of one of the monsters, and there were multiple dents and cracks on his helmet from impacts with the ground. The blood from his wounds easily mixed in with his fur, matting it down.

Gibson had lost a hand (again), and was exhausted from the fighting. There was a massive cut that went from his chest to his hip, his ribcage had taken significant damage, and had been given a concussion from being clobbed on the head by a Skeleton Droid.

Otto had a large puncture wound from getting a big shard of glass stuck in his torso, and his helmet bore signs of cracks and dents, but he was otherwise fine.

Nova had a hand crushed and the top part of her tail had been cut off. Small cuts and bruises covered her torso, and shrapnel from an exploding building cut into her back. She had taken on two Skeleton Droids at once and was able to destroy one before the other came up from behind and smashed her into the ground. She was currently unconscious being tended to by Sprx.

"Guys, here comes another wave!" yelled Chiro. All of them except Nova looked where he was pointing: a large mass of robots and large monsters were charging at them, while several Skeleton Robot sharpshooters took up positions on the roof tops.

The fight had been going on for nearly two hours now, and the waves of Skeleton King minions seemed endless. With this new wave, the team wasn't so sure if they could successfully fend it off.

Chiro turned to Antauri.

"Antauri, we're gonna need the Super Robot for this one. Nova's unconscious and everyone else is too wounded to continue fighting," he said.

Antauri nodded and suddenly pushed Chiro out of the way as a beam from a Skeleton Robot gun sliced through the air right where Chiro's head used to be. If Chiro hadn't moved, his head would have been vaporized.

The silver monkey looked at Chiro as weapons fire from Skeleton Robots and Droids intermingled with weapons fire from a nearby group of GDF soldiers that had responded to the call of Shuggazoom.

"I'll do my best to get the robot here, but I'll need you here to cover me while I contact it," said Antauri. Chiro nodded, and started collecting power from the Power Primate.

He came out from the corner, a ball of dark green energy forming in his hand. He charged it up as Antauri entered his meditative state, reaching out across the planet with the Power Primate to the Super Robot.

"Monkey Fu!" yelled Chiro as he unleashed the blast of energy from his hand. The energy tore across the battlefield, vaporizing the Skeleton Robots and anything standing behind them. A GDF soldier fired their rocket launcher at one of the Skeleton Droids, exploding it into a thousand pieces.

"Scritch-Scratch Doom Thrower!" exclaimed Otto, who came up from the rear. He put his saws together and sent a stream of green energy fragments downrange. They exploded upon impact with everything: robots, droids, monsters, formless, anything that was tangible was affected.

As the dust settled, over a dozen robots and droids had been annihilated. They lay in piles of smoking circuits and metal. But it still wasn't enough.

The tide of undead forces just kept coming. Even now, they heard the stomping of massive formless creatures. GDF forces put up a valiant effort; a GDF gunship swooped in and unleashed a missile barrage on one of the monsters, while laser cannons underneath vaporized anything that wasn't friendly. A pair of GDF tanks arrived onto the scene, sending blast after blast of energy into the wave of undead.

But they kept coming.

An undead sharpshooter fired a beam of dark energy into the engine of the gunship, sending it crashing to earth. It hit a building, which then promptly collapsed onto the tanks and those standing around them.

A Skeleton Droid arrived, and unleashed several dozen micro missiles at GDF forces. They raked across their position, killing tens of soldiers and injuring many more. The Droid fired it's laser cannon, blowing apart the regrouping GDF force and leaving piles of smoking flesh and entrails. But the Droid didn't care.

"Thunder Kick!" shouted Chiro as he kicked the Droid, knocking it several meters away.

"Antauri, we need the Super Robot NOW!" yelled Chiro as the Droid got up and punched him.

Antauri heard him, and sent the command to the Super Robot to awaken. Slowly, the Super Robot's systems came online. It detected that the city was in danger, and the Neutron generator kicked into overdrive to supply the Robot with power.

The clamps holding it in place disengaged, and the massive machine took a few steps forward. A panel on it's back opened up, revealing a large jetpack. The jetpack came online moments later, spewing blue fire from behind as the Robot lifted off.

Antauri opened his eyes, and turned to see Chiro taking on the giant Droid.

"Monkey Mind Scream!" he yelled, and directed it at the Droid. The powerful mind-based attack blasted the Droid off it's feet, propelling it nearly a city block away. Another GDF dropship arrived, unloading several dozen robot, Human, and alien forces to help further defend the city. They rushed to the front lines.

Antauri turned around to see Sprx carrying Nova over his shoulder while Gibson struggled to drag the large bodies of the Robot Apes.

Sprx turned to look at Antauri.

"Nova's stable, at least for now. I still haven't heard anything from the Sun Riders or Olliana, but I don't think they are doing well," he said, wheezing under his breath as he shifted his stance to better hold Nova.

Gibson piped up.

"If we can get back to the Super Robot, I can get everyone functioning again, even the Apes. But I can't do that while we still have that large amount of enemies coming at us," said Gibson. He let go of the body of the Ape, and it dropped to the ground.

Antauri scanned the group.

"I was able to get the Super Robot to come to our aid, but I don't know when it's going to get here," he told everyone.

Chiro pointed to the GDF forces.

"Let's go give them a hand until the Super Robot gets here," he said.

Chiro went over to Gibson and helped him pick up the Robot Apes. They started to move over to the fortified position of the GDF, when a massive formless monster, easily as tall as the Super Robot, stepped between them and the GDF. They looked up to see rows upon rows of sharp teeth, arms with claws that could through building, and leathery wings.

The landing knocked back the team, sending them sprawling. The monster reached down, eager to grab one of the monkeys and eat them. It's teeth gleamed white, ready to bite through flesh and metal alike.

It would've too, if it weren't for the sudden barrage of missiles that knocked it into a building. The building collapsed, and the team felt a dust cloud settle over them. They heard roars and giant footsteps, with the occasional groan and energy weapon blast. When the dust cloud settled and they could see again, they looked up.

Standing above them was one of the most beautiful sights ever: the Super Robot, in all it's metal glory, punching the crap out of a formless monster.

It was moments like that which gave the team hope. It was moments like that that told the team and their allies that they could pull through in this war. That maybe they could defeat the Skeleton King and end the threat of evil forever.

All they had to do was believe they could win, and they would.

Unfortunately, what they forgot at that moment was that life worked in mysterious wars.

* * *

**Done! That's another chapter down. I apologize that the first part of the chapter felt kinda rushed. But I have things to do and I didn't get all the time I needed to work on it. The scenes will get better in the future, I hope. Please tell me what you think by reviewing and let me know how I did with this one. I am not entirely pleased with some of the parts, so I may come back later and redo them. **

**Until next time folks!**

**Planeswalker117**


	5. Chapter 4: The Crash

**AN: Sorry I didn't get this chapter out sooner. I haven't had much time to work on it, and I spent a lot of time reading instead of writing.**

**In this story, there is a difference between engines and thrusters. Think of it like this: the engine of a starship is like the transmission of a car: the transmission gets power from the engine of the car, which then splits that power down to the different wheels. In UNSC ships, the engine block (which is made up of two engines working together) takes gamma rays from the Matter/AntiMatter reactors and sends it through magnetic conduits to the engine. The engine then splits up the gamma rays through separate conduits to the thrusters. The gamma rays then interact with a quark-gluon plasma, superheating it and causing a large plasma ejection, similar to a coronal ejection. Now, this story is NOT hard sci fi, so please don't read it as such. I don't know very much about astrophysics and physics (yet), and that will be reflected in this storys. If you want to help me figure some of this stuff, then by all mean please do. **

**I won't be able to post the next chapter for a while, as I go to Japan for three weeks. The day after I get back school starts again for me, so I really have no idea when I can work on or post the next chapter.**

**I don't own either SRMTHFG! or Halo (although I wish I did!). Those belong to Disney and Microsoft respectively.**

* * *

John strode out of the armory, his ammunition replenished. He held his SACW-AR in his hands, and walked towards the elevator that went up to the airlock. He reached the elevator and rode it up a few floors until it opened, revealing another hallway. He could hear the rumbling of the few, large M990 Point Defense Laser's (P.D.L.'s) still functioning on the _Dawn _firing on enemy ships and fighters.

"Did you activate those point-defenses?" he asked Cortana.

"Affirmative. I was only able to four of the six guns on the aft section of the _Dawn _working. The spacing of the guns and the damage the _Dawn_ has taken has also limited their energy capacity," she confirmed.

"Did you get any other weapons or systems working, like the shield generator?"

"I rerouted power to the remaining Hyperion missile silo, but I still can't activate it. Other than that, none of the systems, aside the engines, are working. The slipspace drive has been slagged to hell and back, and the shield generator is shot. It can be repaired, but we have to get to the planet first."

Chief nodded.

"If we lose the engines and reverse thrusters, how likely is the _Dawn _to survive the landing?" he asked. The engines of the Dawn were the only thing keeping the ship moving. It was also the only thing that would keep the _Dawn _together in one big piece once they got pulled into the planet's atmosphere. The reverse thrusters, working in tandem with the engines, could keep the _Dawn_ from hitting speeds that would tear it apart, as it had no bow section.

"Highly unlikely. I know what you're thinking: I'll have the P.D.L.'s go after targets nearing the engines and reverse thrusters. By the way, there are some enemy robots in the next room."

John grunted and cloaked his armor and suit. The nanites on his armor and suit contracted and crystallized, refracting the light around him while bending microwaves, thermal imaging, radiowaves, and even radar. Better than the active camo utilized by Brute Stalkers, Spec Ops Elites, and Stealth Elites, nanoarmor cloak emanated no heat signature, made it nearly impossible to see with the naked eye, and not even motion sensors could pick them up. With a high-powered reactor, the cloak could last for days on end as long as the user didn't move. Rapid movement did however drain the cloak quicker, and visual observation for the environment could still lead to a cloaked operator being found. Soon, the only thing that anyone could see of the Chief was a small shimmer in the air.

He snuck into the room as the robots meandered around. He watched as they scanned the room for enemies and other objects of interest. An idea came to his head.

"Cortana, is it possible for you to hack into the robots and disable them?" he asked.

"Negative. I thought about doing that earlier, but they're not independent robots. They're getting orders and signals from an unknown source, and I can't block the frequency that the signal is coming from," she replied.

"Can you not find the signal in order to jam it?" he questioned.

"The _signal_ is being sent via quantum entanglement. Not even I can jam quantum particles," she retorted, taking offense at the perceived attack on her intelligence. Even though he couldn't see her, Chief could see her crossing her arms with an indignant look on her face.

"Fine. I'll guess we'll take them out the old fashioned way," said John, raising his AR. He moved to one corner of the room, and took aim at the Skeleton Robots. He waited patiently until two of the robots had crossed paths, and fired. A single round was fired from the gun. It's sheer velocity and kinetic energy tore off the heads and upper torsos of the two robots and impacted against the far wall.

He deactivated his cloak and sprinted towards the nearest Robot, firing his AR at two other Robots. Both fell, and when John got in close enough to the Robot, he drop-kicked it across the room. The robot shattered when John's armored foot made contact with it's body, and the shards were sent spraying through the room.

A small group of Robots entered the room and fired their weapons at the Chief. Nearly a dozen green beams of light split across the room, all aimed at John. Only three hit, draining his shields by a tenth, while the others burned small holes in the wall. He ducked behind the cover of a wall as another burst of laser fire hit the wall in front of him.

"Wait… that's odd. Chief, I'm picking up new ship contacts from the external sensors. I don't recognize them, but they're firing on the other unknown warships. There seems to be a full blown battle going on around us," interrupted Cortana as John crushed the neck support for a Skeleton Robot.

"Are we still being targeted by any ships?" he asked as he tore the head off another Robot.

"No. They are far more focused on taking out each other, but the newcomers don't seem to be faring very well."

Chief dodged a blast of energy fire and retaliated with a precise shot from his rifle. The offending Robot was quickly vaporized by an M/AM round.

"How so?"

He fired a burst from his AR towards a group of Robots. Two were torn apart by the kinetic energy while the other three were destroyed in the explosion of the rounds. A contact appeared on his motion sensor, attempting to sneak up behind him. Sensor data from the suit told him it was a Skeleton Droid with an energy blade. Shifting firing hands from right to left, John twisted his right arm behind his back and fired the cannon.

The round punctured the chest compartment of the Droid and detonated inside. What was left looked like someone had taken a car and sent it through an industrial shredder. Shards of metal scattered the ground while molten metal dripped onto the floor.

Another Skeleton Droid moved towards John under the covering fire of a squad of Skeleton Robot Marksman (S.R.M.), allowing it to get close to him while he took cover. John stepped inside the swing of the Skeleton Droid's energy blade and punched deep into it's chest. He gripped several wires and delicate electronics inside and pulled them out. He grabbed one side of it's body as it deactivated. He quickly shoved a frag grenade into the giant hole in the Droid and tossed it at the group of Marksmen.

The weight of the Droid crushed several Marksmen before the grenade went off. Detonating from inside the Droid, it accelerated shards of metal to high velocities, cutting through the Marksmen and peppering the doorway. The blast damaged one of the support beams above the door and caused it to collapse.

John checked his sensors. Seeing nothing, he turned to the stairway at the back of the room. He watched as several combat drones that were still functioning enter from one passageway and head into another.

"Chief, I was able to get the combat drones online. They've started taking out groups of the unknown Robots; I told them to start clearing a path for us towards the missile silo," said Cortana, breaching the silence that permeated the air.

"What about the hostile warships?" asked John. If both sides focused on each other, then the _Dawn_ could sneak down to the planet below and hopefully commence limited repairs.

"More of the non-hostile warships have entered system, and we are now several thousand kilometers from either fleet. We've been caught within the gravitational pull of the planet, but we are still a ways away from it's atmosphere. That cruiser however is still on an intercept course. Let's get up to the missile silo and prime the missile for launch," replied Cortana.

"What's the status on engines and velocity?"

"I haven't diverted much power to the engines, so our thrusters haven't been doing much. For now we've mostly been using the speed we achieved from drifting."

"Divert power to the engines and thrusters. We need to get away from the fight and that ship as fast as we can and make towards the planet."

"Affirmative. I can only bring the reactor to 42 percent capacity due to a lack of coolant and energy conduits that help keep it stabilized. I can only shunt 18 percent of that energy to the engines, which means that both forward thrusters are only at nine percent power. It's enough of a small boost to quickly move us closer to that planet, but by no means will we be able to outrun one of the larger enemy warships."

"Can you divert energy from the larger P.D.L.'s to the CIWS?"

"Negative; the controls for CIWS were destroyed by the portal. And unless you want to leave the ship defenseless, I suggest keeping the P.D.L.'s active."

"Fine. Divert all power from the main shields and communications to the engines, but keep the P.D.L. shields on. We'll use that energy to quickly move closer to the atmosphere. If any enemy troops get on the ship, we'll get them off the hard way."

"…Done. Shields and communications offline. Shunting remaining power to engines… done. Boosting thrusters as we speak…"

A low rumble was felt throughout the ship as the engine block came online for the first time in four years. Mere seconds after their reactivation came the activation of the main forward thrusters. The ship lurched forwards as the remnants of the inertial dampeners strained to do their job. A blue glow exited the funnels of the thrusters and the _Dawn_ moved even further away from the fight and the ship that was following them.

* * *

"We have disengaged from the battle and are making course for the unknown ship, my Lord," monotonously droned a Skeleton Captain. The hologram of the Skeleton King flickered as he heard the news. The ship was a worthy prize that could potentially hold some sort of weapon he could use against the Monkey Team. The other scouting parties had found some useful items that had been brought back for study, but there was more to the ship than met the eye.

One could tell from the state that the ship was originally found in meant that it had seen war. And a lot of it, too. The most obvious fact was that the unknown ship seemed to be cut in half by some powerful energy weapon or source. The ship also _bristled_ with weapons. From preliminary scans of the ship, there were several high powered P.D.L.'s with nearly a dozen smaller ones, all of which were inactive. Numerous missile ports and silos dotted the hull, and there were at least three launch and cargo bays running through the ship.

Reports from many of the now-destroyed scouting parties showed high amounts of power running from the generator that wasn't present during initial scans, and many entry ways and exits were blocked off.

But what got the Skeleton King's attention most was the massive green creature that he had briefly seen before the Mandarin clone's transponder went offline.

If he wanted to find that creature and retrieve the warship intact he would have to disable the engines. The ship had already been caught by the planet's gravity well and it was only a matter of time before it hit the planet's surface. Disabling the engines would give him the opportunity to haul the ship to a more secure location.

But the arrival of the G.D.F. ships had thrown that plan into jeopardy. His _Skeleton_-class frigates were forced to take on the G.D.F. fleet lest they lose a potentially valuable asset. During that time, however, the unknown ship had moved a far distance away, and more and more G.D.F. ships were arriving in-system. The G.D.F. ships had been losing originally due to the unique nature of his reforming warships, but when reinforcements came he was forced to take command of the blockade fleets.

That had let the unknown ship escape to it's current position. Realizing that losing such valuable information was a critical error, the Skeleton King sent his fastest frigate after the ship. It had to hold back however: the unknown ship had shown that its larger P.D.L.'s were capable of doing moderate amounts of damage against their shields, and any fighters or dropships that had tried to come close had been destroyed by its defense grid. Only sheer numbers had allowed more dropships to land on the warships hull and gain access.

Fortunately, there was another blockade fleet in the path of the warship. Unfortunately, it could only reach that fleet if it's engines were either destroyed or turned off. That meant one thing: get inside the ship, and take it offline.

The Skeleton King exited his thoughts and turned his attention back to the commanding Skeleton Droid.

"Excellent. Prepare all available troops for immediate assault on the unknown warship. Use the fighters and this ship to cover the dropships while they land on the hull of the vessel. From there, your troops are to disable the reactor and engines. If they are unable to do so, bring your ship in close and take out its engines. The other blockade fleet is currently en route, but it is likely that they will meet resistance along the way. You have your orders. Follow them," growled the Skeleton King, an edge of intimidation in his voice.

"At once my Lord," droned the Skeleton Captain. The hologram of the Skeleton King flickered and died away, leaving the Captain to stare at the black and white bone and metal wall of the ship. He turned around to look at his aide.

"Prepare the troops. Launch our fighters to cover the dropships on their approach. If he troops fail, then we will come in and lend assistance if needed," it said to it's aide. The aide nodded and walked off.

The Captain looked back at the image of the unidentified warship. It looked so weak and measly, and he was certain that it be under the control of Skeleton forces by the end of the day. He had been chasing it for a while now, and was about to move in for the killing blow.

Suddenly, the warship in front of them jumped forward as two glowing blue lights appeared from the rear of the ship. It accelerated and soon began outpacing their ship, which was only going at a cruising speed. That was completely unexpected. Even after taking such large amounts of damage it appeared that that ship was still capable of outrunning a ship larger than it.

_Skeleton_-class ships were moderately fast, but most ships in this galaxy relied more on firepower and shielding strength than speed or maneuverability. _Skeleton_-class ships were no different. So when a ship that large accelerated and began to outpace a frigate, the Captain knew that there was no way he would be able to catch up in time.

Unless….

"Divert all power from the shields to engines and push the reactor to 110 percent. We need to catch that ship now!" ordered the Captain. Skeleton Robots raced to and fro to meet the demands, and the frigate lurched forwards shortly after.

The frigate followed the warships for 20 seconds until a sensor reading pinged the closest blockade fleet en route to their position. Now was the time to strike.

"Launch fighters and dropships! Take their engines offline so that the Skeleton King can claim this ship for his undead empire," exclaimed the Captain.

Wave after wave of dropships and starfighters launched out of their respective bays of the frigate. Like a swarm of murderous locusts they sped towards the unknown warship, ready to get inside the warship and take it over for their leader.

The five active M990's aboard the _Dawn_ detected the incoming forces and swiveled in their emplacements. The dual barrels lit up as they fired laser after laser at the oncoming swarm, lighting up the background of space. Blood red energy bursts clashed with purple and green ones, creating an awe-inspiring scene of light and energy.

Fighters and dropships were speared left and right as the powerful weapons went to work. A Skeleton Fighter was vaporized along with it's twin, while a pair of dropships attempting to head for the open areas in the hull were turned into their atomic component parts. A beam from another P.D.L. caught half a dozen ships in it's energy blast, leaving the dropships open to attack. A second later, and they too were removed from space.

But the Skeleton Fighters weren't idle. They swarmed around the large P.D.L.'s, using their sheer numbers to pepper the the weapon emplacements with energy weapon fire. They couldn't hope to outmaneuver the lasers fired from the P.D.L.'s, but they could hope to outgun them. Shields surrounding the the M990's sprang into existence as heavy plasma bolts and neutrino pellets slammed into them.

The shields of one P.D.L. flickered several times before falling beneath the onslaught of over two dozen Fighters on a single pass. Energy cascaded around the P.D.L. as the shield generator struggled to form another shield around the exposed area. Another pass from the fighters briefly halted that attempt as Skeleton weaponry was put to the test of Human engineering. The weapons of the Skeleton Fighter failed to do significant damage to the armor however, and only succeeded in adding new dents, scratches, burn marks, and holes in the plating where the fighters had concentrated their weapons fire.

Energy bleed off from a near miss of an M990 incinerated the wing of a Skeleton Fighter, causing it to crash against the bare hull of the _Dawn_. The reactors of the fighter blew, and the heat scorched the the metal and burned the paint of the _Dawn_.

Meanwhile, several dropships from the frigate looped around to the area where the _Dawn_ had been cut in half. They turned so that their sides were facing the open hallways and levels of the _Dawn_. The Robots inside didn't mind when the atmosphere inside was sucked away. The doors opened, revealing the harsh, cold elements of space. The stars glowed brightly as noiseless flashes of laser and plasma weapons clashed. But the Robots didn't mind.

They jumped out of their troop bays towards the ship. They touched down inside thanks to the gravity plating of the starship floors, and they immediately scanned for hostiles. Finding none, they stalked through the halls, taking readings of everything around in order to locate the engine room.

It was located quickly enough. With a command, the lead Robot took point and began walking down the hallway. Several dozen other Robots followed it, and they moved towards the engine room. They wouldn't fail in their mission.

* * *

"That ship's shields are down. Assuming they don't raise them, that missile's going to be one heck of a surprise," announced Cortana.

Chief grunted in response as he tore the head off a Skeleton Robot before throwing it at another one. The head crashed into the Robot and caused it to crumple into a pile of machinery and bone.

He fired his AR in short bursts at the other Robots, tearing them apart and vaporizing them. Particle beams entered the fray as several squads of Skeleton Robots suddenly entered the already crowded room. Nearly a dozen beams hit John's shields, draining them by 75 percent. The Chief took cover behind a wall of the room right as a combat drone joined the fight.

A frontal shield sprang to life as Skeleton Robot's fired at the drone. It responded in kind with two micro missiles aimed at the largest cluster of Robots and a burst of M.M.G. fire. Metal and circuitry flew through the air as the Robots were obliterated. A Skeleton Droid attempted to body slam the drone, but a concussive blast from one of the drone's arms knocked the Droid away. A micro missile finished it off.

The drone hovered in the air for a few seconds as the Chief stepped out of cover. The engagement between the drone and the hostile forces was over in less than two seconds; more than enough time for his shields to fully recharge.

The Chief stepped out of cover and hooked a right through the door that the drones had come through. In the corner of his vision he watched as the drones took off through another door, most likely to take care of some other threats.

"Chief, I have good news and bad news. Good news is that we are getting close to the airlock that will take us to the external missile controls," announced Cortana, her image appearing in the upper corner of his helmet.

"And the bad?" he asked.

"Bad news is that the P.D.L.'s have engaged dozens of fighters, and enemy dropships are landing in the open areas of the _Dawn_. I've activated all available internal and external defenses of the ship, but I am reading more enemy vessels on the way. We have to get to the missile and destroy that ship before they arrive," she replied. Concern crossed over John's face as he continued down the hall.

Boarding alarm klaxons rang out as a small map appeared in the corner of the Chief's vision. Dozens of red dots highlighted enemy positions where boarding parties had landed, with several dozen blue dots heading towards them.

"Have the drones buy us as much time as possible while we head up to the missile silo. Make sure that they keep them away from the engines and reactors until we can get there," ordered John as he ran down another corridor. His thunderous footfalls echoed throughout the corridor as he constantly checked for hostiles.

His armor's sensors pinged as they picked up an ongoing fight between drones and Robots in the next room. While the drones had more firepower on them, they lacked sufficient numbers to stop the tide of Skeleton Robots and Droids.

While it was important that he remove the enemies from the ship, John knew that getting to the missile was a far more important objective. Every second that that enemy ship was still active was another second that reinforcements could arrive and overwhelm the _Dawn_ with sheer numbers.

He fired off a couple rounds from his assault rifle, destroying several Robots that were tightly packed together. He fired an M.M. at a Droid before activating his S.E.T.S. and sprinted forward through the room.

The micro missile dug into the Droid before detonating as John charged through Robots and Droids alike, shoving them out of the way or simply crushing them beneath his two ton bulk. He barreled through, leaving a trail of twisted metal bodies and crushed limbs behind him as he continued forward. He reached the other side of the room right as more drones arrived to deal with the attackers.

John ran down the hall before finally reaching the airlock. The door closed behind him as he entered the room. A hissing noise was heard as the airlock started it's decompression cycle.

"The auxiliary launch station should be on your left out of the airlocks," said Cortana. The map in John's corner view changed, showing the outside hull of the _Dawn_. There was a yellow hexagon where the launch controls were.

Some distortion appeared on John's HUD without warning. The display fizzled and warped, and some static washed over his vision.

_What the..._

"You'll have to prime the launch for ignition," said Cortana, her voice distorted as well. Just as suddenly as it appeared, the distortion went away, and his HUD went back to the way it was before.

"Cortana?" asked John, aloud.

"It's nothing. Just get to the launch station," she replied, avoiding the topic and question altogether. John would have pressed further, but time was not on his side.

The airlock door opened, revealing the hull of the _Dawn_. The black harshness of space contended with the bright white lights of the airlock hallway, and John could see the purple and red weapons fire between enemy fighters and the P.D.L.'s of the _Dawn_.

In the background of everything, though, was the large form of a metallic planet. Silver and red, there were visible battles going on on the surface, with points of light denoting large explosions.

_Is the battle up here also going on down there?_ wondered John.

What he did notice, however, was the unannounced and unexpected of more black and white ships staying next to the _Dawn_.

"Uh-I'm sorry, did I miss the arrival of _more of those ships_ at some point?" sarcastically asked Cortana.

"One thing at a time," replied John.

This was worrisome. With the arrival of more ships meant more fighters and troops attempting to board the _Dawn_. For now, there was still that one ship that was quite close to the _Dawn_'s location.

Looking back over the hull, John spotted numerous Droids and Robots waiting for him. Sensors connected to his armor and brain alerted that there were approximately 25 hostile contacts between him and the launch controls.

John raised his rifle and fired a stream of rounds at the nearest Droid. They tore through and sheared it in half before detonating. Shards of metal and sparks were sent in all directions, and then casually floated up into space.

_One down, 24 more to go_, thought John. By now the other hostiles had seen him and had begun firing on him. Purple beams of light sprang from the Robot marksmen on the raised platform where the missile launch controls were located as energy pellets and plasma beams impacted the hull around John's feet.

John sighted up and took the heads off a pair of Robots just as a dropship arrived. Chief entered cover as it began firing on him, purple bolts of menacing energy impacting and heating up the hull around him. A dozen Robots and Droids disembarked as John activated one of his personal combat drones and brought out his SACW-ML. He shifted his AR to the other hand as by a 105mm M/AM missile launcher appeared in the other.

Johns armor designated the dropship a priority target and had the launcher began scanning for a weakpoint as he fired the AR over the metal barrier, the armor auto-targeting enemies from readouts coming from the rifle.

A second later the launcher locked onto multiple areas of the dropship and a M/AM Multiple Independently Targetable Missile System (M.I.T.M.S.) was fired out of the tube of the launcher, directed away from the Chief.

The missile flew out several meters from the Chief before turning around mid-flight and split apart, revealing 16 smaller micro missile inside the main body. The micro missiles flew out and individually locked onto the designated weak points of the dropship. They impacted a second later right as the main body penetrated the power core of the ship. The missiles all detonated, and silent explosions tore apart the dropship, scattering pieces in all directions. The occupants still inside were flash-vaporized when the power core went up.

The armor began dismantling the launcher as the Chief stepped out of cover and began shooting at anything moving. A few Robots began flanking him as he moved forward, firing short bursts of 2-3 rounds at Robots and 4-5 rounds at Droids. A Robot threw a grenade, but the Chief simply grabbed it and shoved it into the torso of a flanking Robot before throwing that Robot at its comrades.

John broke the chest of a Robot with the butt of his AR before turning and firing full-auto at at a collection of Robots and Droids attempting to regroup. Some of the rounds exploded inside the frames of the hostiles, blowing them apart and sending metal and sparks into space while others passed right through before impacting the hull, denting or melting it in places but failing to penetrate the two-meter thick armor plating.

Another burst from the rifle caught a Droid unawares, taking off its arm and blowing it apart from the detonation of the rounds. A robot with a cut down weapon charged at the Chief who simply back-handed it away while breaking off its head. The Chief continued moving forward towards the launch controls, firing as rifle as he moved. A rushed up the walkway, knocking aside anything unfortunate enough to move out of the way.

"Chief, you need to find the missile controls," said Cortana. John gave a curt nod behind his helm.

At the very top was another Skeleton Droid, but unlike the others from before, this one was colored entirely in black. It fired a beam of energy which struck John directly in the head, but was blocked by his energy shields. What he didn't expect was the beam to take down his shielding by nearly ten percent. Undeterred, John lashed out with his left arm and grabbed the arm before pulling backwards. The entire arm and its socket popped out of the Droid, and some fluids leaked out before congealing and floating off into space.

Chief punched with his right arm, his AR breaking through the metal chest plating, and pulled the trigger. The Droid came apart as the point-blank shot exited the barrel and exploded, vaporizing the back of the Droid and sending a shower of shrapnel in multiple directions. John let go and pulled his AR out before stomping on the Droid, crushing its energy core and anything else underneath his armored foot.

John turned and faced the launch controls. He briefly scanned the panel before pressing one of the buttons. The panel read "LAUNCH" as the silo activated.

"Launch initiated," announced Cortana. John looked up as the silo door on the far side of the hull opened, revealing a gleaming white missile. The missile began to rise out of the launch bay as it prepared to launch. Suddenly the missile jerked up and down as one of the blast doors jammed from battle damage.

"Great. The blast door's jammed. The missile won't fire until it's cleared. Get down there!" said Cortana. John said nothing and simply leaped off the launch platform towards the jammed blast door.

A dropship arrived and hovered overhead as several troops began unloading. Chief didn't stop running, only slightly slowing down to aim and take out the enemies that had dropped down. He punched the head off of a Robot as his AR tore a Droid in half. The dropship took off, afraid of being destroyed, just as John reached the blast door.

He pushed it at first, but found that it did nothing to the door. Kicking it with the bottom of his foot, the door unjammed and slid back into place.

"You did it! Get back; that missile's going to make a pretty big boom," said Cortana. The missile launched away from _Dawn_ and sped towards the enemy ship.

* * *

"I'm changing your orders. You are to use the energy projector and destroy that ship. Your failure to capture it and destroy its engines has already shown me your incompetence. Do not further prove it to me, or I will have you replaced," scorned the Skeleton King. His attention was entirely focused on the visage of the Skeleton Captain that had shown that it couldn't accomplish such a trivial task.

"But my lord, it is sti-" it began.

"But nothing! You have your orders. Carry. Them. Out. Do you understand?" he asked. His patience was wearing thin. There were far more important things to do than focus on this ship. While he might lose something important with the destruction of that ship, at least he would get rid of that green creature that was wreaking havoc on his forces.

"Y-yes, my lord," said the Captain. The Skeleton King closed the video connection and opened up another one, this time with one of satellites in orbit of Shuggazoom. It was in range of the unknown vessel, and gave him a good view of what happened next.

To say it was unexpected was an understatement.

The cruiser moved forward, its ventral energy projector powering up. The remains of the vessel were well within its sights, and though it had destroyed the attacking force of Skeleton Fighters, it would not be able to stand up against the might of the energy projector.

But right as the Skeleton ship came above it, a bright light appeared to take off from the hull. The Skeleton King instantly knew what it was, but was too late to warn the captain of the ship.

The light slammed into the Skeleton ship and exploded, shattering the ship into pieces and sending them in all directions. The debris flew over the unknown hostile ship, and the Skeleton King could just make out something standing on its hull.

There!

It was the green creature that had systematically taken apart his forces. Calling upon his dark powers, he sent out a bright beam of purple light to scan what the thing was.

* * *

The debris from the hostile warship drifted over the _Dawn_ and continued off into space. John was about to turn around and head back inside when a purple light erupted from the planet below and scanned John.

"Chief?" worriedly asked Cortana.

"That's what was scanning us before," he remarked.

* * *

_Interesting_, thought the Skeleton King. The creature was not a robot. It was mostly Human, with many cybernetic implants. While not unusual for Humans to have implants, it was unusual for Humans to have that many and be that _good_ at warfare.

No matter. It had proven to be a good warrior, but it seemed that he wouldn't be able to turn this Human to his cause. But he would have to make sure that if he couldn't use this Human, then the Monkey team wouldn't be able to either. That would be unacceptable.

He gathered his dark powers again and began something that would undoubtedly drag that ship and its sole occupant down to their graves. He didn't care that it would affect his ships as well. A dark laugh exited his lips as he thought about finding the creatures body and cloning it. Nothing would be able to stand in his way then. The laughter got louder as the Skeleton King released the massive energies he was wielding.

* * *

The Chief stared at the large, purple and black swirling vortex of energy that was coming from the planet below. It was hypnotizing: a dancing display of lethal energies generated by something. As the cyborg continued watching, he noticed that it kept getting bigger.

"_Warning: unknown energy type detected. Advise caution_," warned the suit.

"So _now_ can we worry about the planet below?" quipped Cortana.

Suddenly and without warning the entire ship lurched to one side. The magnetic soles on the bottom of the armor activated, keeping the Chief anchored to the hull as loose pieces of the hull and unlatched equipment tumbled off the ship to the planet below. John could feel the vibrations from the _Dawn_ as it groaned from the enormous pressures being forced upon it.

"That energy vortex is a massive gravity well that is drawing us towards the planet!" yelled Cortana. John watched as the enemy fleet parked right outside the planet also began to fall to the planet. Anything that was floating outside the ship was being pulled into the atmosphere of the planet.

"We've gotta hurry, the second we enter the planet's atmosphere we're not going to have much time before we hit ground," warned Cortana.

"Where are the closest escape pods?" asked John as he turned around.

"Aft vehicle bay! I'm tagging the closest airlock, go!" exclaimed Cortana. John sprinted for the airlock, dodging flying pieces of equipment and metal that were torn from the hull. He rushed inside and an agonizing ten seconds went by as the airlock pressurized again. Once again, time was not on his side.

* * *

A deep rumbling spread across the planet. All across Shuggazoom the GDF and the Monkey Team felt the earth tremble beneath their feet as an unusual sound was heard. The looked up at the sky, and figured out why.

There was a massive vortex of purple and black energy swirling above them. Ships in space were being dragged down towards the planet, and some were already in atmosphere. The Monkey Team couldn't believe their eyes. They had seen what powers the reborn Skeleton King had, but they never believed he could do this.

It would take a miracle to stop him now.

* * *

"Warning: Hull integrity at 45%," said the ships system. John paid it no mind as he rushed down the hallway. He had to get off before the ship crashed. Following the waypoints on his HUD, he rushed past multiple levels and areas of the _Dawn_ as explosions rocked the hallways. A Droid was attempting to leave the ship, but its attempt ended in failure when John smashed his fist through its power core.

He turned to the right and into another junction. A waypoint appeared over the doorway, and he headed into the hallway. A pair of Robots were running to another door, but were halted when their heads were taken off by a pair of M/AM rounds.

"Warning: System depressurization imminent," warned the system again. The _Dawn_ groaned and buckled as the immense gravitational energies stressed the remains of the ship to their breaking points. Without the front half of the ship to seal up the holes and complete the shielding array, the only thing keeping the ship together at the moment was the honeycomb-style structure. Even though that kind of support structure could take a massive beating, the forces being exerted were well in excess of what it could take.

_It's a miracle it's still holding together so far_, thought the Chief as he rounded another corner. The walls buckled slightly as the support beams crumpled. Right as he reached the end of the hallway the floor collapsed slightly, causing the Chief to have to utilize his thrusters to avoid smashing into the floor.

"Hull integrity at 40%," alerted the system. John headed into the next room where a few Robots were also attempting to escape. A couple of them ran forward when they saw him, but were blown apart and crushed when part of the wall next to them exploded. The last one turned at the sight of him and also began to run when the floor suddenly collapsed under its feet. John looked down and began walking around the perimeter of the room.

"All but one of the grav generators have gone dark!" warned Cortana over the sound of tearing metal and objects flying around as more explosions and gravity fields battered the disabled _Dawn_.

"Just keep me pointed at that vehicle bay!" said John. Another explosion blew out several panels of plating on the wall to his left, revealing power lines and other wires. Sparks flew from the panels and hit the Chiefs energy shields.

John quickly entered another room with more Robots and Droids, all of them looking for a way out of the room. All around them the ship continued to tear itself apart and collapse. Chunks of ceiling fell, crushing those unfortunate enough to be caught underneath them. Any still left in the room were quickly dealt with by the Chief.

"Hull integrity at 35%."

John quickly moved out of the room and continued towards the vehicle bay. A wounded Droid limped down the hallway, but was put out of it's misery by a M/AM round to the chest. John paid the smoldering robotic corpse no mind as another explosion rocked the hall.

"Hull integrity at 20%."

"We're almost there!" said Cortana, joy present in her tone.

"Hull integrity at 15%. Personnel are advised caution. Please be ready to evacuate the area," warned the system again. John continued on as the ship continued to be torn apart by the immense gravity field.

"Warning! Warning! Catastrophic depressurization!" warned the system.

John sprinted down the hallway and made it to the vehicle bay when one of the doors was suddenly ripped out. The room depressurized as a large explosion blew open another hole in the hull, and John saw several vehicles fly out.

"Chief!" yelled Cortana. John attempted to hold onto the door, but failed and was pulled further into the bay. He managed to grab ahold of the railing right as the other door was also ripped out of its hold.

"Hold on!"

But nothing could stop physics. WIth a groan the railing was pulled out of the floor, and John got pulled out of the ship and into space. He saw the swirling vortex of energy in the distance, now covering a fourth of the planets surface. The hostile ships were also being pulled towards the planet as well, breaking apart and smashing against each other.

"We're caught in the gravity well, and only seconds away from being pulled into the atmosphere," said Cortana.

"Can you track the escape pods?" asked John.

"Negative, I - Oh no," replied Cortana.

"What?"

"The engines of the _Dawn_ have given out! Without them the likelihood of the ship tearing up in atmosphere has gone from low to astronomically high! I'm attempting to reroute all power from the reactor to the shields, but I don't know how many pieces the ship is going to be in when it makes landfall," said Cortana.

John continued free-falling towards the planet, shoving aside and breaking through the debris of starships. John turned his head to the right and saw the _Dawn_ accelerate towards the planet, an orange glow forming around it.

"Look out!" warned Cortana as a piece of debris from an exploding ship flew at the Chief. He tried to dodge it, but it was too late. John crossed his arms in front of his face as he felt it slam into him. At first there was pain, then everything descended into blackness.

* * *

It was not going well for the team.

The arrival of the Super Robot had briefly been a game changer, and the Monkey Team and G.D.F. forces were beginning to push back the tide of Skeleton forces. The Super Robot was wailing on the monster, and the Monkey Team led a counter-assault on a Skeleton Army held position.

A couple of hits from Nova's fists and the position, along with the building it was in, came crumbling down to the ground. The team had moved up, taking out enemies left and right. They had their sights on the main entrance to Shuggazoom City, and the location of where the near innumerable number of Skeleton Army forces were entering: the Shuggazoom Bridge.

They were about to head forward and try to collapse a section of the bridge when it had all gone wrong.

The Super Robot had been flying through the air after the monster when a large piece of debris knocked it out of the sky. It had attempted to get back up, but the monster had come back and started tearing into it.

Other pieces of debris rained down on the city as the massive energy vortex continued to wreak havoc on the ships above. Buildings, some several kilometers high, were collapsing due to the debris.

The Super Robot was thrown into one of the buildings, destroying its supports and causing the skyscraper to collapse on top of it. Right afterwards the monster had all but dragged it out of the rubble and continued beating it up. Massive dents and holes were visible in the armor of the Super Robot, and the monster had done a good job of crushing one of its feet.

The Monkey Team got caught underneath a falling skyscraper, and bore the cuts and wounds as proof. Their previous injuries didn't help either. They had gotten out of the rubble only to see even more Skeleton forces arrive in the city. The G.D.F. were slowly being pushed back, and a _Skeleton_ class ship arrived over the city.

"It looks bad, guys. I'm not sure if we can get out of this one alive," commented Chiro as he helped lift Otto onto a large chunk of supercrete. Otto's broken leg, courtesy of the skyscraper, now immensely hindered their progress and ability to fight together.

"We have to pull through this one. We have to! If we don't, then the entire galaxy is as good as gone!" exclaimed Sparx, limping up to the rock as he fired his undead gun at an advancing Robot. He ducked down and took cover right as several energy blasts flew past right where he use to be standing.

"Sparx is right, Chiro. We are the first _and_ last line of defense against the Skeleton King. If we fail to stop him here on Shuggazoom, then we will have condemned the galaxy to a fate worse than death," said Antauri. His metal armor was covered in ash and dust from the buildings, turning it a grayish color.

"Yeah, well we ne-" began Sparx, when the ground suddenly rumbled.

"LOOK OUT!" yelled Nova, pushing Sparx out of the way right as the massive hand of the Super Robot crashed right next to them, sending dust up into the air. A small shockwave knocked the Monkey Team off their feet from the impact of the hand.

Just as suddenly as it arrived the hand was gone; the Super Robot thrown against another skyscraper.

The Monkey Team and any G.D.F. soldiers nearby stared up at the massive monstrosity from before. Numerous lacerations and bruises covered it's body, and it's fur was matted down by blood that leaked from the wounds. A bone jutted out of it's right forearm, and one of its wings was snapped in half.

It brought its face close to the assembled group, bearing its massive fangs at them. Four glowing purple eyes stared at the Team and their allies, who stared right back at it. The machinery on its chest beeped as it scanned and detected the Monkey Team in front of it.

"Monkey Mind Scream!" yelled Antauri. The mind attack sped across the battlefield before hitting the beast in one of its eyes, bursting it like a ripe melon. The beast reared back on its hind legs and roared in pain.

It raised its massive paws in the air, ready to crush the Monkey Team. The team was about to open fire when the Super Robot tackled it from behind. They went tumbling down the street, continuing their fight.

"Sir, we have reports of more warships entering the atmosphere. Our team has the charges necessary to blow that bridge apart, but we need to do so before those ships reach us," said one of the G.D.F. soldiers to Chiro. Chiro couldn't fully tell what species the soldier was under all their white armor, but the deep, guttural voice and digitigrade legs told him that it was most likely a Faldarien.

"Alright. The Hyperforce will distract the bulk of their forces here while you guys flank them and put the charges on the bridge. That sound good?" suggested Chiro. The Hyperforce and G.D.F. soldiers nodded.

Without a sound, the G.D.F. team left the area and began their flanking maneuver around to the bridge. Chiro faced his team, their injuries and exhaustion apparent beneath their optics. Blood and dust and grime covered their fur and helmets. They were tired, but if they stopped the Skeleton King's advance here they could buy some more time for the G.D.F. soldiers planetside to set-up better defenses.

"Alright. Otto, I want you laying down covering fire from that spot over there," Chiro pointed to a building a couple dozen meters down the road. "Aim for the bigger enemies that come across the bridge. Everyone else, we're going to draw their fire and take on the main body of enemies directly."

The team nodded, and Otto activated his jetpack. He flew over to the building and laid down, getting the entrance to the bridge in his sights. Once everyone was in position, they waited.

Seconds turned into minutes of baited breath, waiting for when the next wave of enemies would arrive. They could hear the ferocious battle being played out all over the city: in the sky, in the waters, and on the ground.

A deep thumping started up as the team soon heard the tell-tale sign of hundreds, possibly thousands, of feet and legs running across the bridge. It was the army of the Skeleton King, ready to destroy the entire city and bring the Hyperforce before their leader for execution.

A slow trickle of enemies came through the entrance, which then turned into a seemingly endless flow as the main wave came through. There were hundreds of them. Skeleton Robots, Droids, Formless, Monsters, and many more.

There was no way they could fight them all off, but they had too.

"Otto, n-!" was all Chiro got off before a massive metal construct slammed into the ground behind them. As one, the team turned their heads to look, and gasped at what they saw: the head of the Super Robot, detached from the rest of the body. The body itself came tumbling after, battle damaged and scarred.

A loud roar was heard, and the team looked up into the sky as the forces of the Skeleton King continued to pour through from the bridge. The beast landed right behind the team and sat right on-top of the body of the Super Robot. It leered at them, and a cold chill went through the Monkey Team.

There was no way out of this.

_I'm sorry, my friends_, thought Chiro as he looked back at the surrounding forces of the Skeleton King, their weapons powering up. He looked back at his team, proud of what they had accomplished, and smiled. His gaze drifted over to Antauri, who only looked back at him, a knowing look in his face.

_I failed._

The beast raised its hands in the air, once again ready to crush the Hyperforce and leave only a smear on the ground of where they had once been. More Skeleton forces were arriving from the bridge, filling the surrounding streets making any attempt at escape futile.

Otto tried to get up to help his team, but was suddenly forced back down by a cold, metallic boot. Looking back over his shoulder he saw where it came from: four Skeleton Marksmen, all pointing their weapons at his head. He closed his eyes, waiting for the shot that would end it all.

Sparx looked over to Nova, tears forming in his eyes as he realized that he would never get the chance to truly show Nova how much she meant to him. If this was truly his last couple of moments on this world, then he would want Nova to know.

"Nova?" he said quietly, her head turning to him, her face the opposite of his. While he was downtrodden and had accepted his fate, Nova had a look of grim determination and resistance on hers. She was not yet ready to leave this world.

_So beautiful_, thought Sparx. _If only there was more time.._

"I just wanted you to know that even though we won't get out of this, I l-"

**BOOM!**

A tremendously loud sound reached the ears of everyone in the city, causing their focus to shift up. A massive chunk of metal, nearly 500 meters in length and 150 meters in width, was hurtling towards the city, smaller pieces of debris following in its wake. It was part of a ship, and not one that was recognizable. Even at this distance they could feel the ambient temperature raise slightly from the heat of the vessel.

A piece of debris, traveling at supersonic speeds and blazing hot from reentry smashed into the Skeleton monster, passing right through. Singed fur and steaming blood and entrails splashed on the ground below as the debris left a ten meter wide hole in its chest. The beast gargled as blood flowed out of its mouth, its lack of a heart and lungs soon stopping that. It fell backwards onto the ground, crushing anything caught underneath. Blood pooled into the streets as the fiery rain of metal continued.

"Everybody down!" yelled Chiro, the team ducking, as a gigantic piece of metal impacted the area in front of them, completely crushing the entire invading force attempting to come through entrance. Over a thousand Robots, Droids, and Monsters were destroyed as the shockwave knocked down the Monkey Team and caused a nearby building to collapse.

The chunk of metal bounced and rolled overhead, nearly decapitating the the Monkey Team before tearing the Marksmen holding Otto in two.

As the dust settled, the team looked up as the remains of the ship crashed into multiple buildings on its way down, knocking them over and sending more dust and debris into the air. A piece of debris hit one of the supports for the bridge, and caused a large section to fall into the waters hundreds of feet below.

The largest piece of the ship finally stopped rolling and bouncing, and had left a trail of death and destruction in its wake. A five kilometer streak of debris and crushed earth was left behind from the impact with the planet, and the shockwave hit them moments later. A large blast of air sent dust up into the air, and the team was knocked onto their backs.

The team coughed groans as they got up, trying to make sure not to breathe in too much dust. The Monkeys activated their infrared vision in order to see past the dust.

"Otto! Otto, are you okay?" yelled Chiro.

"I think so! I'll try to get over to your position" replied Otto.

"Anyone hurt? Is everyone okay?" Chiro questioned his team. Groans and moans of pain and soreness were the answers to that question.

"I've been better," said Sparx, who was struggling to push a piece of supercrete off of him. Gibson, after making sure nothing was broken, walked over and helped pull the debris off of him, allowing Sparx to get out.

"Thanks," he said in reply.

Antauri brushed himself off, but more dust and ash clung to his metal frame. Otto came zooming over a second later, using his gun as a crutch for his broken leg.

"We should go check to see if there are any survivors," he suggested. The team nodded and began to make their way through the debris as more metal rained from the sky.

Gibson took point, his scanner out and reading for any lifesigns in the debris. They had passed by multiple bodies, both of G.D.F. soldiers and Skeleton King forces. They had been walking for nearly half an hour, and had found groups of G.D.F. soldiers and some of their other allies, such as Olliana and Master Offay.

Olliana and Master Offay agreed to go look for other survivors before later reporting back to the City Hall while the Super Robot fixed itself.

They kept walking, not finding anything in the debris so far, when Gibson's scanner picked up something.

"I got a reading. It's under the rubble over there," he pointed. The team couldn't see anything, but they trusted Gibson's scanner and instincts, and began to pull of metal support beams, armor plating from that unknown ship, and chunks of supercrete.

Five minutes of drilling, lifting, and pulling later, they found a green armored hand. It was massive: nearly the size of one of the monkey's heads. Excited about the find, they kept digging, revealing more and more of the creature.

Finally, the entire body was revealed. And it was big.

Nearly three meters tall and covered head to toe in black and green armor, the being they found was gigantic. It was intimidating to say the least. Instead of eyes there was an orange eye-slit at eye level. A thruster pack was mounted to its back, and the armor looked very thick and also weighed just as much as he looked. Sparx was unable to lift him with his magnets even when helped by Nova, and Gibson estimated he weighed nearly 2000 kilograms.

"What is it?" asked Antauri.

"Well, it's definitely not a robot. It's actually a Human. A cyborg to be precise. A very tall, very heavy Human cyborg. I can't get full scans on it due to its armor and… am I reading this right?" Gibson asked himself as he looked at the scans.

"Is something wrong?" asked Nova.

"No. Apparently, that cyborg also has energy shielding around it's body, which would explain why I can't get a full reading on it. We would need to take it back to the Super Robot, where I have the proper equipment to get that armor and take a full scan," replied Gibson.

"Wait. Could that thing be a new creature employed by the Skeleton King? If we take it on the Super Robot, and it turns out to be working for him, we would be putting ourselves at risk," stated Sparx.

"I don't think so Sparx. Look at that emblem on it's chest," said Otto, pointing to an image on part of the armor.

It was a picture of some sort of winged bird, a shield in the center with words going across it and a planet held by its claws. There was a small banner going underneath it with unintelligible words.

"I haven't seen any sort of emblem like that before. We should take it back to the Super Robot until it wakes up. Hopefully, we could use its help against the Skeleton King if it turns out to be a fighter," said Antauri.

"And if it turns out to be evil I'll just smash it into the ground like a rock!" said Nova, pulling out her fists for emphasis.

"Settle down Nova. We'll take it back to the Super Robot until it wakes up. We'll decide what we do when it does later. For now, we should treat our wounds and make sure everyone else in the city is okay. Got that?" said Chiro. His team nodded.

It took the combined effort of Antauri, Nova, and Sparx to hoist up the cyborg and carry it back to the self-repairing Super Robot.

What none of them detected was the entity inside the cyborg's head, recording and seeing everything through the sensors of the armor. They had no idea what they were dealing with here.

Things were going to change soon.

This planet would never be the same again.

**Please review!**


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